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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Lessons for Youth: 






DESIGNED AS AIDS TO 



The Proper Understanding of ithe Scriptures. 



By Rev. J. W. B. Allen, 

Of the North-west Texas Conference, M. E. Church, South. 




16 1383, 



&s*< 



PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR I 

SOUTHERN METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE, 

NASHVILLE, TENN. 

1883. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by 

J. W. B. ALLEN, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Introduction 7 

Lesson I. 
The References, and How to Use Them 9 

Lesson II. 
Suggestions About Reading at Night 11 

Lesson III. 
" The Serpent." Meaning of the Expression 13 

Lesson IV. 
" Her Seed." What the Words Imply 15 

Lesson V. 
Jesus, "The Lamb of God" 18 

Lesson VI. 
" Christ Our Passover." The True Sacrifice ■ 21 

Lesson VII. 
The Whole Scriptures Harmonize 23 

Lesson VIII. 
How was Christ Manifested to the Church Prior to his Incar- 
nation? 27 

Lesson IX. 
One Lawgiver, One Mediator, One Saviour 31 

Lesson X. 
The Church, as to its Origin and Names 34 

Lesson XL 
The First Family was the Church in Embryo 36 



4 Contents. 

Lesson XII. page 

The First Family, the Church, Placed Under a New Law or 
Eitual of Worship 39 

Lesson XIII. 
Coexistence of the Church with Adam and Eve Further Con- 
sidered 41 

Lesson XIV. 
If the Church Did Not Begin with Adam and Eve, then When 
Did it Come into Existence? 42 

Lesson XV. 
Adam and Christ were Both Representative Personages, or 
Characters 46 

Lesson XVI. 
Adam the Figure of Christ 47 

Lesson XVII. 
Religion of All Ages the Same 51 

Lesson XVIII. 

Synoptical Review of Lessons 56 

Lesson XIX. 

John, as a Priest, Baptized Jesus 57 

Lesson XX. 
John Baptized Jesus Preparatory to his Higher Anointing by 
the Holy Spirit 63 

Lesson XXL 
The Twofold Character of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ and 
his Consecration Correspond 70 

Lesson XXII. 
The Changed Priesthood Necessitates a Change in the Law. . 79 

Lesson XXIII. 
Baptism with Water a Type of Spiritual Baptism 85 

Lesson XXIV. 
Some of the Prophecies Respecting Jesus Christ 86 



Contents. 5 

Lesson XXV. page 

New Testament Testimony upon the Use of Water as a Type of 
the Spirit 88 

Lesson XXVI. 

The Water and the Blood 90 

Lesson XXVII. 
The Law Fulfilled in the Actual Sprinkling of the Blood of 
Jesus Christ 94 

Lesson XXVIII. 
Examples of Spiritual Baptism 97 

Lesson XXIX. 
A Brief Eeview 100 

Lesson XXX. 
The Three Witnesses Agree 102 

Lesson XXXI. 
Pouring or Sprinkliug vs. Immersion 104 

Lesson XXXII. 
On the Authority of the Scriptures 113 

Lesson XXXIII. 
Why, or for What Keason, are the Old Testament Scriptures 
Kejected? 118 

Lesson XXXIV. 
The Two Adamic Covenants 122 

Lesson XXXV. 
On the Intermediate Covenants 126 

Lesson XXXVI. 
The Belation of the Children to the Covenants and the Church. 133 

Lesson XXXVII. 
The Children Proper Subjects for Baptism 136 

Lesson XXXVIII. 
The Teachings and Practice of the Apostles upon Infant 
Baptism 145 



6 Contents. 

Lesson XXXIX. page 

My Mother's Mistake 152 

Lesson XL. 
"If it Had Not Been for My Mother, I Would Have Been an 
Infidel" 154 

Lesson XLI. 
The Broken Vow 162 

Lesson XLII. 
The Bottle on a Hunting Tour 164 

Lesson XLIII. 
The Husband's Opposition 166 

Lesson XLIV. 
The Insane Wife 168 

Lesson XLV. 
"I will Break Him from Drinking" 169 

Lesson XL VI. 

"I Will Make Your Life a Hell Also" 170 

Lesson XL VII. 

"I Will Not Go to the Party" 172 

Lesson XL VIII. 

A Prayer in the Wrong Place •» 177 

Lesson XLIX. 
The Infidel's Daughter in the Party 180 

Lesson L. 
Individual Responsibility 184 

Lesson LI. 
Sin a Forfeiture of Christian Character 212 

Lesson LII. 
Parental Stewardship and Responsibility 220 

Lesson LIII. 
Religion First, Religion Last, Religion Forever 223 



LESSONS FOR YOUTH. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is a reasonable supposition that every one claims to 
have some sort of a reason for what he does, whether it 
be good or bad. We therefore suppose that every writer 
claims to have some sort of a reason for what he w r rites, 
whether his writings be of a good or bad character. 

We purpose to offer some thoughts under the above 
caption — Lessons for Youth — upon various subjects; 
and, as a reason why we do this, we give a bit of our ex- 
perience in early life in reading and trying to understand 
the Scriptures, and the results of our observations in the 
past of life. 

I. My Experience, — When about twelve years old, I re- 
ceived from my grandmother a Testament as a present. I 
appreciated the gift. It was a common book, with a few 
words over the chapters as a caption of contents. My 
Testament had no references, nor did I know any thing 
about the references in any way. I read my Testament 
through carefully and consecutively, but could not re- 
member all that I read, consequently I knew but little of 
the doctrines taught in it outside of a few of the most prom- 
inent doctrines, and those but imperfectly. 

About the time I was grown, I learned to use the refer- 
ences in reading the Scriptures, which was a great satisfac- 
tion to me, and a great help toward understanding the 



8 Lessons for Youth. 

Scriptures. I met with another hinderance to the un- 
derstanding of the Scriptures that gave me considerable 
trouble, which was from the teachings of others, viz. : " That 
the Old Testament was fulfilled, and simply applied to 
or belonged to the Jews as a nation (or tribe), and that 
therefore we had nothing to do with it ; and that there never 
was any Church until John and Jesus Christ set it up (or 
organized it) at Jerusalem, and the day of Pentecost had 
passed." This notion, with other ideas taught by some 
people, perplexed my mind in my efforts to understand the 
Scriptures. 

II. My Observations upon the proper understanding of 
the Scriptures by the majority of the people have resulted 
in the conviction that a few — only a few — of those w r ho 
read the Scriptures know how to read them so as to under- 
stand the doctrines taught in them. 

My observations have resulted in another conviction, 
viz. : That if I can impart to others the knowledge that I 
needed myself while young, to aid them in understanding 
the Scriptures, I should afford them that aid ; and I therefore 
offer the preceding as an introduction to what may follow. 

J. W. B. Allen. 

Thrifty, Texas, Jan., 1883. 



LESSON I. 

Xne References, and How to Use Them. 

A knowledge of and the use of the references, in 
reading the Scriptures, are important to a correct under- 
standing of the Scriptures. Before we commence with the 
lesson proper, we remark that there are many persons who 
have no knowledge of the references as an aid to the study 
of the Scriptures. The proof of the correctness of this as- 
sertion is the fact that they sometimes ask questions which 
show that they do not know how to get the answers to 
those questions from the Scriptures, else they would not 
ask such questions. We propose to show by the refer- 
ences that the Old and New Testaments can be used as a 
commentary upon each other, in giving explanations to ex- 
pressions used that we would get from no other source so 
clear and satisfactory as from the Scriptures. If this last 
expression has any truth in it, then the references are im- 
portant as an aid to the correct understanding of the Script- 
ures. Again, if we can make the Old Testament aid us to 
understand the New Testament, then the Old Testament 
did not belong exclusively to the Jews as a nation or tribe, 
as some assert; nor was its mission fulfilled and it abro- 
gated on the coming of John and Jesus Christ and the in- 
troduction of the New Testament, as some assert. Again, 
if we can make the New Testament explain Old Testament 
expressions, then the two Testaments were inseparable in 
their divinely appointed missions, and therefore should be 
read and studied together, to secure a correct understand- 
ing of their teachings. We think we may say truthfully 
that no man can understand the New Testament without 
the aid of a knowledge of the Old Testament; nor can 



10 Lessons for Youth. 

some things in the Old Testament be understood at the 
present day without the New Testament. 

The Reference Lesson. — The columns containing the 
references are a perpendicular set of lines, sometimes in the 
center of the page, sometimes on the outer edges of the 
page, between which lines are the reference letters, books, 
chapters, and verses, named opposite or under certain letters 
as places referred to, where something is said upon the same 
subject or word, where the reference-letter stood in the 
reading. The chapters always begin with the first letter 
in the alphabet, and if there are more than twenty-six ref- 
erences from a chapter, then a is introduced again, and 
others in alphabetical order to the end of the chapter. 
Explanatory marks occur also, as the dagger, or obelisk 
(f), the parallel (||), the paragraph (^f), and ch. for chap- 
ter; and certain letters for certain books, as Gen. for Gen- 
esis, Matt, for Matthew ; these you may readily understand 
by a little attention. The chronological date, or year, in 
which the books composing the Bible are said to have 
been written, you will find at the top of the marginal space 
on each page, and at points in the body of the margin 
where change of date occurs; for example, over marginal 
columns at Gen. i. is printed " Before Christ 4004." In 
the New Testament you will find "Anno Domini" at the 
top of the reference-column, which means "in the year of 
our Lord," noting the time from our Saviour's incarnation ; 
as at the last chapter of Revelation, "Anno Domini 96 w 
years after Christ's incarnation. 

With these remarks as explanatory of the characters and 
dates with which you will meet in the Bible, I propose as a 
beginning with the references Gen. i. 1 : " In the "begin- 
ning 6 God created the heaven and the earth." a in the 
reference-column refers to John i. 1, "In the beginning 
was the word;" also to Heb. i. 10, "And thou, Lord, in 



Lessons for Youth. 11 

the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth ; and the 
heavens are the works of thine hands." b refers to Ps. viii. 
3, and other places where you will find something said 
about God as the Creator. 

As an illustration of the explanatory marks, see John 
xiii. 26 : "Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give 
a |j sop, when I have dipped it." The parallel (||) before 
the word sop refers to the same mark in the margin or ref- 
erence-lines, viz., "|| or, morsel/' as an explanation of the 
word sop. 

There might be many other examples given. What we 
have said and the examples given are sufficient to guide 
you to a knowledge of the references, and how to use 
them upon any text or doctrine that you may desire to un- 
derstand. 

You will find this use of the references an interesting and 
instructive way of studying the Scriptures. 



LESSON II. 

Suggestions About Reading- at ^(ight. 

Many leisure hours may and should be employed in 
reading at night by young persons. They could not spend 
their time to a better purpose. 

I offer to you a bit of advice about reading by a light at 
night, viz. : 

1. Never sit facing the light, nor permit the light to 
shine in your face while reading ; for the reason that it 
produces an injurious effect upon your eyes much more read- 
ily than if they were shaded by sitting with your back or 
shoulder to the light. 

2. Be careful of straining your eyes in reading fine print 
at night. By imprudently taxing your eyesight in this way 



12 Lessons for Youth. 

you may soon suffer a loss that you may never recover. I 
suggest these things to you because I suffered from a want 
of a little knowledge upon these points myself. 

3. It is not the amount of reading that you do at a time, 
but that which is remembered and digested, which results 
in valuable knowledge. Reading is to the mind what eat- 
ing is to the body. You may overtask the mind by read- 
ing as easily as you can sit and eat until you overtask your 
digestive powers. You may read so as that the mind will 
retain and digest nothing. Strive to retain and digest 
what you read, as a source of instruction to yourself and 
as a means of instructing others. Talk about what you 
read ,as an aid to memory and as a source of instruction to 
yourself and others. 

4. Be careful of the books or papers that you permit 
yourself to read. You may cultivate an appetite for any 
sort of books that you may choose. You may waste your 
time and efforts with books that you had better never read 
a line in, and contract a taste for a cast of reading that 
will be worse than no reading. Let me repeat with em- 
phasis, Be careful of what you read ! 

5. In reading the Scriptures, I suggest a rule or system 
of reading, as (1) the Scriptures should be read consecutive- 
ly through ; and (2) it is a good rule to select some subject or 
doctrine as a lesson for a day or week, and make it the 
subject of study and research, and by the use of the refer- 
ences consult the various writers of the Old and the New 
Testament Scriptures until you satisfy yourself upon that 
particular doctrine or subject. This completed, then select 
another subject for study. This rule adopted directs your 
thoughts in a certain channel ; and by the reading several 
scriptures upon the same subject the memory is more like- 
ly to retain and digest the ideas presented. This is quite 
different in its permanent effects to a sort of promiscuous 



Lessons for Youth. 13 

reading of every thing that comes in your way, which is the 
practice of many who read much to no profit. 

Let us try to illustrate the reading by rule and reading 
without rule. Suppose a farmer works on one side of his 
farm one day, or a few hours in a day, and then goes and 
works a short time on the other side of the farm ; and the 
third day works on another portion of his field ; and the 
fourth day at some other place; and goes on thus changing 
every day — will he be likely to succeed in making a crop? 
Nay; you would laugh at his folly. He would be pro- 
nounced no farmer, and the results would prove that he 
was a failure. Now, let us suppose that you read the Bible 
a little in one place on one day, a little in some other book 
on another day, and that you read a little at different places 
and upon different subjects as a rule — what may you expect 
to accomplish ? When you were at school, you were expect- 
ed to master one lesson before another was given. You were 
expected to know something of the spelling-book before 
you were put to the study of grammar, or arithmetic, etc. 
Our next lesson will illustrate more clearly what we recom- 
mend as a rule in studying the Scriptures. 



LESSON III. 

"The Serpent." Meaning of the Expression. 

We suppose you to have commenced to read through the 
book of Genesis, and that you come to the word serpent as 
used in the third chapter, first verse. What would you 
likely conclude was meant by that expression? I conclude 
that you would likely be at some loss to know what was 
meant by the words " the serpent." Let us see what we can 
find out by the references as to what was meant by that ex- 
pression as used in that connection: "Now °the serpent 



14 Lessons for Youth. 

was 5 more subtile than any beast of the field which the 
Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, 
hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden ? " 
The letter a stands before the words the serpent, and re- 
fers to Rev. xii. 9, "And the great dragon was cast out, 
that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which de- 
ceiveth the whole world;" again, another reference to Rev. 
xx. 2, "And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, 
which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand 
years." I stated that the New Testament was in some 
things a comment upon the Old Testament. The example 
above proves the expression to be correct. Now, if we take 
the references from Rev. xii. 9, they refer to Gen. iii. 1-4, 
from which we were referred to Revelation. We get an- 
other reference from Revelation to Luke x. 18, viz., "And 
he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from 
heaven;" another reference to John xii. 31, "Now is the 
judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world 
be cast out." From these references we learn that the 
word serpent, as used in Gen. iii. 1, implied or meant that 
person or existence that is elsewhere called the Devil, 
Satan, and that was cast out, etc. There are questions 
which naturally come up to every thinking mind in regard 
to this peculiar existence called the serpent, Devil, and 
Satan. And various notions have been entertained as to 
the real personality of the devil; and whence he came, 
and how he became a devil. By tracing his history as re- 
vealed in the Scriptures by the use of the references, you 
may arrive at satisfactory conclusions upon all of those 
questions. Suppose we try the references upon the real 
personality of the devil ; they will furnish proofs of what 
he has done and is capable of doing, so as to leave no 
doubt of his real personality. They will furnish proofs that 
he is capable of suffering punishment, which also establishes 



Lessons for Youth. 15 

his real personality. Again, as regards his origin, or how 
he became a devil, we will learn that he is a sinner and 
wicked, and that he kept not his first estate ; that he is a 
fallen angel or^spirit ; that he became a devil in the same 
way that man became a sinner, viz., by transgression. 

I allude to these questions about the devil, that old ser- 
pent and deceiver, because of the variety of notions among 
men upon those questions, and furnish you with the means 
of securing the revealed scriptural answers to all these 
questions, and insist that you take these various questions 
as reference lessons, as a source of reliable instruction 
upon those questions. 

LESSON IV. 

"Her Seed." Wliat tlie Words Imply. 

We propose the use of the references upon the words in 
Genesis iii. 15 : "And I will put enmity between thee and 
the woman, and between thy seed and 'her seed ; it shall 
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." These 
words were spoken to the serpent, the devil, who had de- 
ceived the woman, and led her into transgression. The 
woman alleged that "the serpent beguiled me, and I did 
eat." Therefore, the first that man knew of Satan, the ser- 
pent, was that of a deceiver; and it is indicated in this first 
history of him that he has a seed. Hence we hear the 
devir and his angels spoken of in the Scriptures (Matt. 
xxv. 41): "Then shall he say also unto them on his left- 
hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
prepared for the devil and his angels." Again (2 Pet. ii. 
4 : "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but 
cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of 
darkness, to be reserved unto judgment. " And (Jude 6) : 
"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left 
their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains 



16 Lessons for Youth. 

of darkness unto the judgment of the great day." And 
the words of Jesus Christ (John viii. 44): "Ye are of your 
father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do ; he 
was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the 
truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speak- 
eth a lie, he speaketh of his own ; for he is a liar, and the 
father of it." With these as outlines of the serpent and his 
seed, their mission and destiny, it becomes a matter of no 
trivial import to arrive at a correct knowledge of what the 
seed of the woman implied as used in connection with the 
first transgression. As a reference upon the words "her 
seed" we have Isaiah vii. 14: "Therefore the Lord himself 
shall give you a sign : Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and 
bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." This 
prophecy is quoted in Matthew i. 23: "Behold, a virgin 
shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son; and they 
shall call his name Immanuel, which, being interpreted, is 
God with us." The birth of Jesus is asserted as a fulfill- 
ment of this prophecy in verses 18-22. We have as an- 
other reference upon "her seed" Galatians iv. 4-5: "But 
when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his 
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them 
that were under the law, that we might receive the adop- 
tion of sons." Again (Rom. v. 6) : " When we were yet 
without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." 
We have thus by the references a clear and satisfactory 
definition of what was implied by the words " her seed " as 
used in connection with the first transgression. It was Je- 
sus Christ, the Son of God, as manifested in the flesh in the 
person of Jesus Christ. These expressions assert that this 
event took place in due time, when the fullness of the time 
was come — at the proper time, or the middle of time; at 
the most appropriate time to make him available as the 
world's Redeemer. 



Lessons fob Youth. 17 

Adam and Eve doubtless understood that expression as 
a promise and prophecy of a Mediator in the person of Je- 
sus Christ, and embraced the Christ as their Redeemer ; 
and doubtless under divine direction adopted a ritual of 
worship that emblematically represented the death of the 
promised Redeemer. As presumptive evidence of this, we 
find Cain and Abel engaged in acts of worship in the offer- 
ing of sacrifices, of which it is said that "Abel obtained 
witness that he was righteous/' (Gen. iv. 1-5 ; Heb. xi. 5.) 
Whence had these sons of Adam any knowledge of how to 
please God, except through parental teaching and exam- 
ple? Again, Adam and Christ are inseparably connected 
as representative characters in and through the whole 
Scriptures, and Adam is spoken of as a figure of Christ. 
(Rom. v. 14.) "Her seed" (the seed of the woman), the 
promised Saviour, became the subject of prophecy and the 
object of worship as such, from the time of the promise 
until its fulfillment, under a ritual which looked to him 
to come, which was about four thousand and four years 
from the time of the promise until its final fulfillment. 
There is a meaning in that expression in Galatians, "When 
the fullness of the time was come," that you cannot fail to 
see when you regard Jesus Christ as Mediator, Lawgiver, 
and Saviour of the fallen race of Adam. "Adam was not 
deceived, but the woman, being deceived, was in the trans- 
gression." (1 Tim. ii. 14.) We conclude from this state- 
ment that Adam acted upon a knowledge of the results of 
eating the forbidden fruit, and of what he himself w T ould 
suffer as a consequence; and the curse pronounced upon 
him was based, partly at least, upon his having hearkened 
unto the voice of his wife. (Gen. iii. 17.) Various con- 
jectures have been offered as to why Adam did this. We 
simply assert that Adam acted under a known law, and 
assume that he understood the medium and terms of medi- 



18 Lessons for Youth. 

ation as proposed through the seed of the woman who was 
in the transgression, who was led into it by the false teach- 
ing of the serpent, having yielded to the force of temp- 
tation as presented by the serpent. "Her seed" implies 
directly the Redeemer Christ Jesus, and indirectly all 
who embrace this Mediator Jesus Christ as their Saviour. 
All who embrace Christ become his followers and spiritual 
soldiery, and there is enmity to this day between Christ and 
his followers and Satan and his followers ; so that in an in- 
direct sense every Christian is the seed of Christ through 
the woman, and is at enmity against all wickedness. There 
is no compromise ground between Christ and Satan, none 
between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. 
There has been an uncompromising warfare going on be- 
tween these opposites ever since the first transgression. 



LESSON V. 

Jesus, "The I^ainl> of God." 

Having given two examples in which it is shown that 
the New Testament does give a comment upon Old Testa- 
ment expressions, we propose a lesson from the New Testa- 
ment, to see if we can make the Old Testament aid us to 
understand what New Testament expressions mean. "The 
next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, 
Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the 
world." (John i. 29.) Suppose we had no knowledge of 
the Old Testament Scriptures? What construction would 
we likely place upon that expression of John's, calling Je- 
sus "the Lamb of God?" We would likely inquire, In 
what sense? for what reason? why should Jesus be called 
"the Lamb of God?" In the absence of any knowledge 
of the Old Testament teachings upon this subject, the ex- 



Lessons for Youth. 19 

pression, "Lamb of God/' would be to me a profound mys- 
tery. But there is another thought expressed by John 
which would be equally a profound mystery, and that is 
that the "Lamb of God" "taketh away the sin of the 
world." What would we know, what would it be possible 
for any man to know, about the sin of the world, if we had 
no Old Testament Scriptures? I answer, we could abso- 
lutely know nothing upon those subjects were it not for the 
Old Testament Scriptures. Adam and Christ, in their rep- 
resentative characters, are the foundation of all Scripture, 
whether in the Old or the Xew Testament, whenever, wherev- 
er, or by whomsoever written ; nor can either the Old or the 
New Testament be properly understood without the other. 
They connect like the links of a chain. They are of equal 
authority, and both are absolutely important to the proper 
understanding of the will of God and the plan of salva- 
tion. To the Old Testament we apply for a beginning of 
the definition of what "the Lamb of God" meant as used by 
John. One of the. references gives Exodus xii. 3: "Speak 
ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the 
tenth day of this month they shall take a lamb according 
to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house." See 
the chapters explanatory of what was to be done with the 
lamb, and what was implied by the sprinkling of its blood. 
Again, in prophetic description of Jesus Christ, see Isaiah 
liii. 6, 7: "All we like sheep have gone astray. We have 
turned every one to his own way ; and the Lord hath laid 
on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he 
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he was brought 
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shear- 
ers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." The next refer- 
ence that we offer is 1 Peter i. 19, 20: "But with the pre- 
cious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without 
spot; who verily was foreordained before the foundation of 



20 Lessons for Youth. 

the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.'' 
Another, Revelation xiii. 8 : "And all that dwell upon the 
earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the 
book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world." Note that Peter says of Christ as a lamb that 
"he was foreordained before the foundation of the world, 
but was manifest in these last times for us;" and in Rev- 
elation Christ is spoken of as "the Lamb slain from the 
foundation of the world." These expressions give a reason 
why Jesus was called "the Lamb of God that taketh away 
the sin of the world;" and these expressions of the Old 
and New Testaments give a reason why Cain and Abel 
were offering sacrifices at that early period of man's history 
upon earth, and indicate at least why it was that through 
sacrifice the Lord testified that it was acceptable, as in the 
case of Abel (Gen. iv. 4) : "And Abel, he also brought of 
the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the 
Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering." Again 
(Heb. xi. 4) : "By faith Abel offered unto God a more ex- 
cellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness 
that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by 
it he, being dead, yet speaketh." "Abel was a keeper of 
sheep," and it is stated that he took of the firstlings of his 
flock, and, guided by the law of sacrifices which were prac- 
ticed for about four thousand years after Abel's day, it is 
a reasonable conclusion that his sacrifice was a lamb, and 
that it was in strict compliance with the law that Abel 
made that sacrifice by faith which received the favor of the 
Lord, from the fact that his faith is mentioned as a condi- 
tion upon which he was blessed, his lamb being a type of 
Jesus as the true Lamb, who was to be slain in due time. 
We have not heard of any believer in the truth of the 
Scriptures who doubted the salvation of Abel. Now we 
read Acts iv. 12. Speaking of Jesus of Nazareth, it says: 



Lessons for Youth. 21 

"Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none 
other name under heaven given among men whereby we 
must be saved." This, then, asserts that Abel's salvation 
was by Jesus Christ. Hebrews xii. 24: "And to Jesus the 
Mediator of the covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling 
that speaketh better things than that of Abel." 1 Peter i. 
2 : "And sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." 1 Tim- 
othy ii. 5, 6: "For there is one God, and one Mediator be- 
tween God and man, the man Christ Jesus; who gave him- 
self a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." Then 
there is only one Mediator, and that one Mediator was a 
ransom for all, and as such he was testified in due time. 
Then all who have ever been saved, and all that may here- 
after be saved, have been and must be saved by and through 
Jesus Christ, who was typically represented by sacrifices 
up to the time of his crucifixion, and whose death is now 
emblematically represented by the Sacrament, or Lord's 
Supper ; and thus his sacrificial death has been and must 
be perpetuated in memory by his true worshipers. 



LESSON VI. 

" Christ Our Passover." The Xrue Sacrifice. 

This lesson, as to its subject-matter, is closely allied to 
the previous one. " For even Christ our Passover is sacri- 
ficed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast." (1 Cor. v. 
7, 8.) The references from these verses will run very much 
like those of the previous lesson, and are in some respects the 
same lesson with another name. There is a direct refer- 
ence to the passover as practiced under Divine direction as 
defined in Exodus xii., and was doubtless practiced even 
prior to that time in some way in the shape of sacrifices; 
but the Lawgiver, even Christ, saw fit to give to it a special 



22 Lessons fob Youth. 

shape when Israel was to be delivered from Egyptian bond- 
age, at which time a more full and perfect form of ritual 
was given to the then existing Church than had been en- 
forced prior to that occasion. The Church had received 
through Abraham a rule of designation and obligation be- 
yond what had preceded his day by the introduction of cir- 
cumcision ; and in the more perfect ritual as given by or 
through Moses, the passover, with its peculiar solemnities, 
was introduced ; and circumcision and the passover as given 
to Israel' were inseparably connected by the Lawgiver, so 
that no uncircumcised person was permitted to eat of the 
passover. It was obligatory upon Israel to keep the pass- 
over, as you may see (Ex. xii. 47) : "All the congregation 
of Israel shall keep it." Israel was the Lord's congrega- 
tion, or Church, in the wilderness, as Stephen asserts in Acts 
vii. 37, 38: "This is that Moses which said unto the chil- 
dren of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up 
unto you of your brethren like unto me ; him [Christ Jesus] 
shall ye hear. This is he [Christ] that was in the Church 
in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him [Moses] 
in the Mount Sinai; and with our fathers, who received 
the lively oracles to give unto us." A further proof of the 
correctness of this expression made by Stephen is given in 
1 Corinthians x. 1-4, 9, in which it is stated "that all our 
fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the 
sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in 
the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and 
did all drink the same spiritual drink ; for they drank of 
that spiritual Rock that followed them ; and that Rock was 
Christ." " Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also 
tempted, and were destroyed of serpents." These two ex- 
pressions teach that the Israelitish Church was baptized 
unto Moses as its minister under Christ in the person or ap- 
pearance of the angel, and Christ was the angel who gave 



Lessons foe Youth. 23 

the law to Moses in Mount Sinai, and that law was to be 
given unto us. We understand by that that it was to be 
regarded as the history of the then existing Church with a 
ritual that looked to Christ to come in the flesh as the true 
Sacrifice and true High-priest. It was therefore the Christ 
character who introduced the passover on the night of the 
deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage, which pass- 
over in its emblematical elements was a type of the death 
of the promised Sacrifice in the person of Jesus Christ ; and 
it was the same Christ character in connection with human- 
ity who in the same night that he was betrayed introduced 
what we now call the Lord's Supper, which with us is our 
typical passover, typical of the death of Jesus Christ as the 
true Sacrifice. Hence the expression of our text : "For even 
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us 
keep the feast. " Their Church looked to Christ to come, 
and ours looks to Christ as having already come; and in 
this with its associates consists the real difference between 
the Church of Christ in the wilderness under Moses as its 
minister and the Church of the apostles' days and of our 
days. 



LESSON VII. 

The Wliole Scriptures Harmonize, 

The two last lessons were taken from the New Testa- 
ment, and the two preceding them were taken from the Old 
Testament, thus giving examples in t which it was shown 
that some portions of both are needed as an aid to the 
proper understanding of the Scriptures. One of the rea- 
sons why I have thus shown their importance as a com- 
mentary upon each other is the fact that some are disposed 
to reject the Old Testament Scriptures, and assert that they 
had filled their mission — that they were applicable to and 



24 Lessons for Youth. 

belonged to the Jews alone as a tribe or nation of people, 
and that therefore they are not to be regarded as Church 
history or law in any sense whatever in our day. Hence 
they reject their teaching as having no force or claim upon 
the Church at present as regards its faith, doctrines, or 
practice. 

In the preceding lessons we have contended that in the 
ritual, or rules of worship, the types, shadows, and sacri- 
fices which emblematically looked to Christ to come neces- 
sarily ceased upon the coming of Christ, or were so changed 
as to be adapted to the fact of his having come. These we 
regard as having filled their design upon the coming of 
Christ, and therefore ceased of necessity. But these are a 
sort of external garb of the Christian religion as exhibited 
in the Old Testament Scriptures. The real religious faith, 
doctrines, and practice of the saints of old w T ere as truly 
spiritual as ours, and as positively Christ-like as ours. 
Many of them were as holy as any are at the present; and 
the essential features of the whole moral law as taught in 
Old Testament are as binding on us this day as they ever 
were upon any others of an earlier day. Jesus Christ as- 
serted that he came not " to destroy the law, or the prophets, 
. . but to fulfill." (Matt. v. 17.) Suppose this had refer- 
ence to the ceremonial law, then what of that expression 
in Mark x. 19, when he repeated a portion of the deca- 
logue as important to salvation? What of that expression 
in John v. 39: "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye 
think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify 
of me?" When these words were spoken, the New Testa- 
ment was not written ; therefore, Jesus asserted that the Old 
Testament w T as to be read and studied to gain a knowledge 
of himself as the Redeemer. Again, when Jesus was ques- 
tioned by a lawyer as to the great commandment in the 
law, his answer was : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 



Lessons for Youth. 25 

with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the 
second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law 
and the prophets." (Matt. xxii. 38-40.) These expressions 
clearly teach that Jesus Christ taught the whole moral law 
as set forth in the Old Testament, as incorporated in his 
teachings in the New Testament. So the expression used in 
Luke xvi. 31 : "And he said unto them, If they hear not 
Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, 
though one rose from the dead." Once more, St. Paul, 
speaking of the Old Testament, says to Timothy: "And 
that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, 
which are able to make thee w r ise unto salvation through 
faith which is in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim. iii. 15.) Once more, 
Jesus says, in John v. 46: "For had ye believed Moses, 
ye would have believed me ; for he wrote of me." Then 
the Old Testament is indispensable as Church history, and 
consequently as Church law. They are important as teach- 
ing of Christ. The whole moral law is as positively in 
force now as it was prior to the coming of Christ in the 
flesh. We here assert that there is no new doctrine as 
such, outside of the life, actions, and incidents peculiar to 
Jesus Christ, taught in the New Testament, except such 
changes of ritual as were necessary upon his having come. 
So far as the essentials of the Christian system are con- 
cerned, they are all taught in the Old Testament Script- 
ures. Jesus Christ explained some of them more fully 
perhaps than is done in the Old Testament — e. g., the 
the second commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
as thyself," he defines to mean the doing to others as we 
would they should do unto us. Jesus furnishes comments 
upon other commandments. For the benefit of those who 
claim that all the Old Testament is abrogated, we will give 
3 



26 Lessons for Y _ 

o 

those that are contained in his Sermon on the Mount, com- 
mencing in Matthew v., virtually embracing the whole of 
the Ten Commandments. If you have any doubts upon 
this subject, please pause just here and take the time to 
read the comment upon the commandments as furnished 
by Jesus Christ. One example in verses 27, 28: "Ye 
have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou 
shalt not commit adultery ; but I say unto you, That who- 
soever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath commit- 
ted adultery with her already in his heart." We now offer 
what we left off of Paul's instruction in 2 Timothy iii. 16, 
17 : "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is 
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for in- 
struction in righteousness ; that the man of God may be 
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." We 
ask why should any be disposed to reject the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures as Church history and as Church law ? We 
can conceive of only one reason, and that is this: If it is 
acknowledged as Church history, and as giving its ritual, 
then it teaches some things that contradict their peculiar 
Church rules ; and therefore the easiest way to get rid of it 
is to reject it as any part of Church history, and thereby 
assert that there never was any Church in existence until 
John and Jesus Christ came, and the day of Pentecost had 
passed. And as far as I know, all who reject it hold to 
this last position : that the Church began then to exist. 
With the Old Testament Scriptures acknowledged as 
Church history, then there are some historic facts recorded 
that are undeniable, viz. : (1) that the doctrine of the pos- 
sibility of apostasy is a scriptural truth, taught by precept 
and illustrated by examples given in the Old Testament 
Scriptures; (2) that the children were members of the 
Church under the Old Testament law or ritual of the 
Church; (3) under the Old Testament law the rule or 



Lessons for Youth. 27 

mode of consecration, or purification (what we now call 
baptism), was performed by sprinkling or affusion, and in 
no case by immersion. And to evade the force of these 
historic facts and truths as set forth in the Old Testament, 
some reject it in toto, and assert also that there never was 
any Church until the days of John and Jesus Christ, and 
the day of Pentecost. 

We close this lesson with this remark: Those who reject 
the Old Testament Scriptures as Church history cannot 
prove the necessity of the New Testament; they cannot 
prove the necessity of a Christ character; they cannot 
prove the Christ character. But with the Old and New 
Testaments as Church history the whole Scriptures har- 
monize — they link together — they do not clash, but are 
consistent with each other, and make a perfect history of 
Church law or ritual from Adam to the end of apostolic 
ministration. 



UESSON VIII. 

How was Christ manifested to the Church I»rior to 
his Incarnation? 

Oxe reason why we propose this question as the basis of 
a lesson is the fact that some have asserted that there was 
no Christ available as such until his incarnation, or manifes- 
tation in the flesh. Some have asserted that none were ever 
saved through Christ until he was crucified at Jerusalem. 
We propose some proofs as to the existence and available- 
ness of the Christ character in the Old Testament times prior 
to the manifestation of Jesus Christ in the flesh ; and as an 
introductory remark, we assume that Jesus Christ was God 
manifest in the flesh — in other w r ords, in person Jesus Christ 
was both God and man. He was both divine and human. 
He was manifested to the Church prior to his incarnation in 
his divinity of nature. He was called by various names 



28 Lessons for Youth. 

which clearly indicated his true character. Some of his 
names indicate his humanity in connection with his divin- 
ity. We propose some of the names given to the Christ 
character in the Old Testament as a part of the answer to 
the question. Genesis xlviii. 16: "The Angel which re- 
deemed them from all evil." Exodus xxiii. 20: "Behold, 
I send an Angel before thee." Judges xiii. 15-18 : "Angel 
of the Lord." Isaiah lxiii. 9: "Angel of God's presence." 
Joshua v. 14, 15 : " Captain." Isaiah lv. 4: " Commander." 
Isaiah ix. 6 : " Counselor." Haggai ii. 7: " Desire of all na- 
tions." Isaiah vii. 14: "Immanuel." Matthew i. 23: "Im- 
manuel," God with us. Isaiah xxxiii. 22: "For the Lord 
is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our 
King ; he will save us." James iv. 12 : " There is one Law- 
giver, who is able to save and to destroy." Jeremiah xxiii. 
6: "The Lord our Righteousness." Malachi iii. 1: "The 
Messenger of the covenant." Daniel ix. 25: "Messiah." 

From the time that the promise was made that the seed 
of the woman should bruise the serpent's head until the 
manifestation of Jesus Christ in the flesh, there were sacri- 
fices offered which symbolized the humanity of Christ. 
Those sacrifices were a substitution for his humanity until 
such time as it was appropriate for his humanity to be in- 
troduced, and to be the true sin-offering, as the Redeemer 
of the fallen Adamic family. That time is spoken of as 
" the fullness of the time," and " due time." Through faith 
in the promised Redeemer as symbolized by those sacrifices, 
salvation through the Christ character as Mediator and Re- 
deemer was as possible and as available as it has been 
through Jesus Christ since he was crucified at Jerusalem. 
To deny the availability of the Christ character prior to 
his incarnation would be equivalent to denying the divinity 
of the Christ character. To deny the divinity of Jesus 
Christ w T ould be to make it idolatry to w T orship him ; for if 



Lessons for Youth. 29 

he was not divine, he was a mere man, and therefore not a 
proper object of worship. That the union of humanity 
and divinity in the person of Jesus Christ is a mystery to 
us is beyond dispute, but the union of soul and body in one 
man is also a mystery; so we are not justifiable in denying 
all that is mysterious. There are expressions having a di- 
rect reference to the humanity of Jesus Christ, and others 
having a direct reference to his divinity. In his human 
character, or person, he slept, ate, w r alked, and talked ; he 
was tempted, suffered, and died as a man. In his divine 
character, or person, he healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, 
raised the dead, calmed the ocean, rose from the dead, as- 
cended to heaven, and liveth forever to make intercession 
for the redeemed. In his divinity he was and is the only 
Lawgiver to his Church in all ages of the world. He is the 
Christ of the Avhole Scriptures, of the Old as w r ell as the 
New Testament. In his Christ character he led Israel out 
of Egyptian bondage, and manifested his Christ character 
in its divine nature in leading Israel through the Red Sea 
as by dry land, and caused Israel to be baptized unto Moses 
as a minister under himself. Moses recognized and acknowl- 
edged the Christ character and the claims upon himself, 
" esteeming the reproaches of Christ as greater riches than 
the treasures of Egypt." Moses was a preacher, and 
preached Christ to his people as the only source of salva- 
tion. Jesus Christ asserted that Moses wrote of him. The 
symbol of the divine presence as manifested by the pillar 
of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night was a sym- 
bol of the Christ presence and power as Mediator between 
God and man. His peculiar mediating office was demon- 
strated by the movements of that cloud. When the cloud 
moved, all Israel moved, whether by day or night; when 
the cloud stood still, all Israel was quiet. The peculiar of- 
fice of that cloud clearly demonstrated the presence and 



Lessons for Youth. 

mission of the Christ character to and with the then exist- 
ing Israel and Church in the wilderness. See Acts vii. 
38: "This is he [Christ] that was in the Church in the 
wilderness with the angel which spake to him [Moses] in 
the Mount Sinai, and with our fathers ; who received the 
lively oracles to give unto us." 

The Christ character was manifested in the Old Testa- 
ment times. There is no revealed truth more fully set forth 
in the Scriptures than that of the presence and efficacy of 
the Christ character under different names, as "Angel of the 
Lord," "Angel of God's presence," "Angel that redeemed 
them from all evil," " Messenger of the covenant," " Redeem- 
er," "Shiloh," "Messiah," "Shekinah." Christ is called 
the "Alpha and Omega" in the New Testament. It was 
he who made the revelation to St. John in the Isle of Pat- 
mos. (Rev. i. 8, 9.) It was this identical personage who 
was the mediating, redeeming, saving person of the Old 
Testament saints, and of the Israel of God. The notion and 
teaching that there was no Christ Church in Old Testa- 
ment times is a modern shape of infidelity under the garb 
of gospel truth. This is a wolf in sheep's clothing, because 
it is falsehood under the garb of truth. This falsehood, 
taught and believed, is an effectual step toward a confirmed 
infidelity. Why should four thousand years of the Adamic 
race be spent upon earth without the mediation of Jesus 
Christ as the Redeemer of the race? Why should that time 
elapse, or pass, without any Church, since Christ as Medi- 
ator and the Church are coeval. Had there been no 
Church, there would have been no necessity for a mediator. 
We allege, therefore, that the existence of the Christ char- 
acter implies the existence of the Church, it being remem- 
bered that the word Church is only one of many other 
names by which the Lord's people, or family, have been 
designated. The prophet, in speaking of what we now call 



Lessons for Youth. 31 

the Church, says (Isa. lxii. 1, 2): "For Zion's sake will I 
not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, 
until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and 
the salvation thereof as a lamp that burnetii. And the 
Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glo- 
ry ; and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the 
mouth of the Lord shall name." The names Church and 
Christian, as in the New Testament, are simply a fulfillment 
of a prophecy made of Zion and Jerusalem in the Old 
Testament times. These truths are too plain to be misun- 
derstood, except by those who have a creed or dogma to 
serve, and are determined to hold to it, even at the manifest 
perversion of revealed truth. Upon this view of Christ 
and the Church the whole Scriptures harmonize. The Old 
and the New Testaments constitute an unbroken chain of 
truths, facts, demonstrations, doctrines, and history of Christ 
and his Church that by revelation are regarded as sufficient 
for the salvation of the fallen race of Adam. 



LESSON IX. 

One lawgiver, One Mediator, One Saviour. 

Upon those three appellations, or names, given to the 
Christ personage, we offer some thoughts. That there 
should be two or more lawgivers to the Adamic family is 
an absurdity. God as the Creator is the only rightful Law- 
giver to his creatures. God in Christ as the Mediator is 
the only source of mediation between God and men. God 
in Christ as the Saviour is the only source of salvation. 

What of that expression in John i. 17, " For the law 
was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus 
Christ?" It was shown in a previous lesson that Christ 
gave the law to Moses as his minister. Moses as a minis- 



32 Lessons for Youth. 

ter under Christ gave the law to the people. Therefore 
it is said the law was given by Moses. That Moses should 
have given any law that would have been in opposition to 
Christ would be a contradiction of the words of Moses, for 
he says of Christ, " Him shall ye hear in all things." 
(Acts iii. 22, vii. 37; Deut. xviii. 15-20.) The lan- 
guage of Moses sets forth the Christ under the name of a 
prophet, and in verse 20 says : " But the prophet which 
shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have 
not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the 
name of other gods, even that prophet shall die." From 
these statements of Moses, he recognized and claimed the 
authority of Christ as the Lawgiver to him. Moses con- 
stantly asserted that "thus saith the Lord," when deliver- 
ing the commands to Israel. So that Moses was no more the 
giver of the law than were Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John 
the givers of the Gospels. Moses wrote and spoke what 
was given to him, and the apostles wrote and spoke what 
was given to them — what they saw and heard ; so that in 
the identical sense that the law is said to have been given 
by Moses, the Gospels were given by the apostles. 

One Lawgiver. — Isaiah xxxiii. 22 : " For the Lord is 
our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our 
King; he will save us." And James iv. 12: There is one 
Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy." In the 
preceding lesson we showed that Christ in the appearance 
of an angel was called an Angel, and was the identical per- 
son who gave the law to Moses. We undertake to say that 
it was the Christ who gave to Adam after the fall the law 
by which he could approach and worship God ; and it was 
Christ who made the covenants with the Church in all sub- 
sequent time from the time that Adam was driven out of 
the garden of Eden ; and it was that identical Christ man- 
ifested in the flesh who changed the laws of his Church to 



Lessons for Youth. 33 

their New Testament form before he ascended up to heaven. 
That Christ was the giver of the law and of the covenants 
is clearly proved by Romans xv. 8 : " Now I say that Jesus 
Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of 
God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." 

One Mediator. — 1 Timothy ii. 5, 6 : " For there is one 
God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man 
Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testi- 
fied in due time." Romans v. 6 : " For when we were yet 
without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." 
These Scriptures, with many others of a similar import, 
demonstrate that there is but one Mediator, and that in the 
person of Jesus Christ. Hebrews ii. 9 : " But we see Jesus, 
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffer- 
ing of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by 
the grace of God should taste death for every man." 1 
Corinthians xv. 22 : "For as in Adam all died, even so in 
Christ shall all be made alive." Through the mediation of 
Jesus Christ the Adamic family had permission to approach 
and worship the living God. This mediation gave to Abel 
the right to worship God, and through this mediation "Abel 
obtained the witness that he was righteous, God testifying 
of his gifts." 

One Saviour. — Of Jesus of Nazareth it is said (Acts iv. 
12) : "Neither is there salvation in any other ; for there is 
none other name under heaven given among men whereby 
we must be saved." Jesus Christ, then, as the only Sav- 
iour, and as the only Mediator of salvation, and as the only 
Lawgiver, has been available to the Adamic race from the 
time that Adam was driven out of the garden for his trans- 
gression of the law as given by the Lawgiver. 

With these three revealed truths admitted, then there are 
some legitimate deductions based upt>n these truths which 
cannot be successfully contradicted, viz. : 



34 Lessons for Youth. 

(1) There is and has been but one Church from the crea- 
tion of man to the present time, and that was and is Christ's 
Church. 

(2) There have been changes made in the ritual, or law, 
of Christ's Church, such as were best adapted to make his 
mediation available to the salvation of the Adamic race in 
all ages of their existence upon earth. 

(3) By positive law the children were recognized mem- 
bers of Christ's Church in Old Testament times, Christ be- 
ing the Lawgiver. 

(4) Then Christ would not and did not exclude the chil- 
dren from his same Church in New Testament times. 

(5) Christ Jesus said of the children, " Of such is the 
kingdom of God;" then Christ Jesus confirmed the rights 
and membership of the children in his Church as the right- 
ful Lawgiver in New Testament times. 



LESSON X. 

The Cliiircli, as to its Origin anil Names. 

There is a variety of opinions extant as to the origin or 
beginning of what is now called "the Church." For the 
purpose of correcting what we regard as erroneous opin- 
ions upon this subject, we offer the following : 1. There are 
those who contend that the Church w T as set up, began to ex- 
ist, under the ministry of the apostles on the day of Pente- 
cost. 2. Others contend that John the Baptist and Jesus 
Christ brought the Church into existence under their pe- 
culiar ministry at and about Jesusalem. 3. Others contend 
that the Church began with and in the family of Abraham 
w T hen the covenant of circumcision was introduced. 4. Oth- 
ers assert that the Church began to exist as such with Abel, 
who was the first martyr. We regard all of these opinions 



Lessons for Youth. 35 

as erroneous. The word Church, with its different names 
and their meanings, will aid us in determining its origin, or 
beginning of existence. The word Church occurs the first 
time in the New Testament in Matthew xvi. 18 : "And I say 
also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will 
build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it." The word Church is used again by Stephen in 
Acts vii. 38: "This is he that was in the Church in the 
wilderness with the angel, which spake to him in the Mount 
Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the lively oracles 
to give unto us." Stephen was speaking of Israel, another 
name of the Church, and speaks of Abraham as a promi- 
nent member of the Church, to whom the covenant of cir- 
cumcision was given. From what Stephen asserts, the 
Church was in actual organized existence long prior to the 
time that the word Church was used in the New Testament; 
therefore the expression of Jesus Christ in Matthew xvi. 
18 cannot imply that the Church was then and there insti- 
tuted as its beginning of existence, but that Jesus intended 
to teach that its ritual was to be completed by and through 
him as its only Lawgiver and Mediator, and upon the cen- 
tral truth expressed by Peter of Christ in Matthew xvi. 16 : 
" Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." This 
truth expressed by Peter was doubtless the rock referred 
to, and the building of the Church evidently meant its per- 
fection of ritual, and indicated its future prosperity. As a 
further confirmation of the correctness of the position that 
what w r e now call the Church existed prior to New Testa- 
ment times, we offer some of the names by which it was 
called. What Stephen calls the Church in Acts vii. 37 is 
also called (Gal. vi. 16) "the Israel of God," (Ps. cxxii. 1) 
"the house of the Lord," (Jer. xii. 10) "vineyard/' (Joel 
iii. 2) "God's heritage," (Ezek. xxxiv. 15) "flock of God," 
(Ps. lxxiv. 19) "congregation of the Lord's poor," (Ps. cxi. 



36 Lessons for Youth. 

1) "assembly of the upright," (Ps. cxlix. 1, 2) congrega- 
tion of saints/' (Eph. iii. 15) "family in heaven and earth/' 
With these names as a guide to a proper definition of the 
word Church, there is no reasonable cause of a failure to 
understand its true meaning. We claim that what we now 
call the Church is also called the family of the Lord and 
other names of a similar import. We ask, then, When and 
where did the family of the Lord originate? When did it 
begin to exist as such? We answer, The Church, or family 
of the Lord, commenced with the first man and woman — 
Adam and Eve — when they were created and placed under 
law in the garden of Eden, in their original state of moral 
purity, and pronounced good by their Creator and Law- 
giver. They were proper, legitimate members of the fam- 
ily, or Church, of the Lord. They were model and repre- 
sentative members before their sin and consequent fall. 
They were placed under a ritual adapted to their capaci- 
ties and circumstances as possessing knowledge, righteous- 
ness, and true holiness. With these as model and repre- 
sentative members of the Lord's family, the Church began 
to exist. 



LESSON XI. 

Xhie F*ir@t Family was tlie Cliurcli in Kmtoryo. 

Adam and Eve were model and representative members 
of the family, or Church. They were model members in 
two respects: 1. In that they were created after the like- 
ness and image of their Creator. We are informed that 
that likeness and image consisted in knowledge, righteous- 
ness, and true holiness. (Eph. iv. 23, 24; Col. iii. 10.) 
This moral likeness and image (Gen. i. 26) was a qualifi- 
cation as to knowledge and an endowment of moral nat- 
ure constituting them proper subjects of law. They were 



Lessons for Youth. 37 

therefore competent to the duties demanded by their Crea- 
tor and the mission they were intended to fill. They were 
therefore modeled after the moral nature of their Creator; 
and they were models of qualification and endowment for 
the members of the family, or Church, in all coming time. 
In this they were properly representative members of the 
Church in all ages of the Adamic race upon earth, if not 
in heaven also. These demerits of moral nature as pos- 
sessed by Adam and Eve are the essential elements of 
moral nature that are now required in the members of the 
Church under its perfection of ritual since the Adamic 
sin and consequent fall from his original moral state, as per- 
fected by Jesus Christ, who was the second Adam. 2. The 
first Adam as to his moral nature was a figure of the second 
Adam who was to come. (Rom. v. 14.) The friendly re- 
lations and personal communion between Adam and his 
Creator was such that he held personal interviews with his 
Creator up to the time that he transgressed the divine 
law. He received the law of worship, or ritual of service, 
directly from the Creator in person, in which there was 
one restriction, or prohibition. He was forbidden to eat of 
the fruit of a certain tree. Genesis ii. 17 : " But of the 
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat 
of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt 
surely die." The tree of life was in the midst of the gar- 
den, and to it Adam seems to have had free access so long 
as he refrained from partaking of the forbidden fruit ; but 
after he had broken the law, the tree of life was no longer 
a suitable tree for Adam to partake of its fruit. The sen- 
tence of death was a penalty for the violation of the law 
under which he was placed ; and life and death are oppo- 
sites. It was therefore not admissible for Adam to par- 
take of the fruit of the tree of life, because he had taken 
and eaten of the fruit of the tree which was to produce death 



38 Lessons for Youth. 

as a penalty for his act of transgression. This identical 
principle is asserted by Jesus Christ in his Sermon on the 
Mount: "No man can serve two masters." "Ye cannot 
serve God and mammon." "If any man love the world, 
the love of the Father is not in him." No man can serve 
sin and holiness at the same time. There is no compro- 
mise ground between those opposites. All men are either 
the servants of God or of the devil. They cannot be both 
at the same time. It was optional with Adam to retain 
his original moral state by obedience, or to forfeit it by 
disobedience. He could have refrained from eating the 
forbidden fruit if he had chosen to do so. Sin in Adam 
was no accident; it was no blind, ignorant act upon his 
part ; it was no happen so. There was no coercive decree, 
as some have asserted. It was a known, understood action 
of wrong, purely voluntary, else it could not have been 
the just cause of punishment. Revelation is full upon this 
subject. There is no room left for doubt as to the nature 
of the Adamic transgression, and its just deservings as a 
willful violation of a known law; therefore it deserved the 
threatened penalty, which was death. The death-penalty 
fell on Adam immediately after the transgression, in a 
broad, deep, terrible, afflicting sense. His knowledge of 
how to please his Creator was effectually eclipsed. He 
lost the capacity, if not the will also, to please his God. 
His righteousness and true holiness of moral nature all 
passed away, and the opposite abounded. His innocence 
and sense of justification w 7 as supplanted by guilt and con- 
demnation. There was a total break-up of friendly rela- 
tions between Adam and his Creator. There was a spirit- 
ual death of his rights, privileges, communions, and hopes, 
and it only remained for his probation to end in literal 
physical death, unpardoned for an eternal confirmation of 
this spiritual separation from peace with God forever. 



Lessons for Youth. 39 

This is a sad picture, or rather reality of history, of the 
first members of the Church, or family, of the Lord upon 
earth. 



UESSON XII. 

The Kirst Family, the Cliurcli, IMacecl Under a ^*ew 
I«aw, or Ritual of Worship. 

Adam and Eve having violated the first law, or cove- 
nant, under which they were placed, and thereby lost the 
knowledge and capacity to please their Creator, it became 
necessary to introduce a new law, or covenant, by and 
through which a restoration of knowledge and the ca- 
pacity to serve and please the Creator should be brought 
in. This new law, or covenant, was brought in through 
and by the Christ personage, which was God in Christ, or 
God manifested to fallen man in mercy through a Medi- 
ator, and that Mediator was manifested through humanity. 
As the first members of the family were representative 
members, it was necessary that the Mediator should also 
be a representative personage, or character; and as the 
mediatorial plan of mercy should be so arranged and 
manifested as to be adapted to the necessities of the 
Adamic family, so as to be available to all ages of their 
existence upon earth, embracing the last as well as the 
first descendants, it was important that a ritual should be 
adapted to that end, else it had been deficient in one of its 
important designs. It was therefore important that the 
available mediation should be manifested at the proper 
time, and under the most favorable circumstances to ac- 
complish its designs. It was also important that the actual 
incarnation of the Mediator should take place at such a 
period of the history of the race as to demonstrate that 
he was the Redeemer of all the race, and that his iucar- 



40 Lessons for Youth. 

nation, death, and resurrection should be witnessed by a 
competent number of witnesses at such a time as to be 
susceptible of proof to a demonstration. For the purpose 
of educating the race for the proper reception of the Me- 
diator in his perfection of character, and for reserving 
this grand event to a proper time, a ritual of sacrifices was 
introduced as a substitution for the humanity of the Medi- 
ator until "the fullness of the time was come." Hence 
we read that " without the shedding of blood there was no 
remission of sins." The blood of the sacrifices was a type 
of the blood of Jesus Christ, and was used as a sort of 
substitution by faith for it until it should be actually shed 
as the true atoning blood for sin. This view of the sub- 
ject gives a reason why Abel's sacrifice was accepted, and 
he obtained the witness that he was righteous. The intro- 
duction of a ritual of sacrifices was brought in immedi- 
ately after the transgression by the first pair, Adam and 
Eve. There are good reasons for believing that Adam 
and Eve embraced this new law, or covenant change of 
ritual, practiced it, taught it by precept and example to 
their children, and thereby became the first adopted chil- 
dren and heirs of the new covenant. As a presumptive 
proof of this, their sons, Cain and Abel, learned in some 
way that sacrifices were necessary as a form of approach- 
ing or pleasing the Lord in service. It is a fair conclusion 
that this lesson had been taught to these first sons by 
Adam and Eve. These facts and incidents, actings and 
doings of the Adamic family, and the divine dealings with 
them, are the first foundation of all true Church history. 
Blot these out, and you have no foundation for a Church, 
no necessity for a Mediator, nor can you prove the neces- 
sity or existence of any Christ personage. The whole of 
revelation rests upon these revealed truths as given to us 
in the book of Genesis as the beginning of the Church or 



Lessons for Youth. 41 

family of the Lord, with their changes of ritual adapted 
to their wants and circumstances. Those who reject this as 
Church history may as well reject the whole of revelation. 



LESSON XIII. 

Co-existence of the Church with Adam and Eve 
Farther Considered. 

That the Church began to exist with Adam and Eve 
we argue from other considerations, viz. : 

1. The redeemed and saved through Jesus Christ are 
spoken of as having access and a right to the tree of life in 
the New Jerusalem. That there is a reference here to the 
tree of life which was guarded by a flaming sword from 
Adam, after his sin and fall, is beyond question. This being 
true, then Jesus Christ came to restore the fallen members of 
the Church to their original rights and privileges as chil- 
dren of God. The right and privilege of access to the 
tree of life was forfeited by the first Adam, but it is 
brought back through the second Adam, Christ, they be- 
ing equally representative persons, so that it is said that 
"where sin abounded grace hath much more abounded." 

2. Again, the identical moral nature in which Adam 
and Eve were created is now required in acceptable mem- 
bers of Christ's Church in the New Testament requisitions 
as expressed in various places, one of which is Matthew 
v. 48 : " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in 
heaven is perfect." Another is Hebrews xii. 14 : " Follow 
peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man 
shall see the Lord." 1 Peter i. 15, 16: "But as he which 
hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of 
conversation ; because it is written, Be ye holy ; for I am 
holy." Ephesians iv. 23, 24: "And be renewed in the 

4 



42 Lessons for Youth. 

spirit of your mind ; and that ye put on the new man, which 
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." 
It would be easy to add many other similar expressions 
which are made in the Scriptures in reference to the orig- 
inal moral nature that was imparted to the first Adam as 
a representative man. St. James speaks of him as having 
been "made after the similitude of God." 

3. The Adamic sin, with its results, is kept promi- 
nently in view in the whole Scriptures as the reason why 
there should be a Mediator, Jesus Christ ; and the victory 
and final glory of the Church consist in a complete de- 
liverance from sin in its ruinous results through the me- 
diation of Jesus Christ. 

These are a part of the arguments and proofs that the 
Church began to exist with Adam and Eve when they 
were placed under a law of service in the garden of Eden. 



LESSON XIV. 

If tlie Cliurcli Did FSot Begin with Adam and Eve, 
then When Did it Come into Existence? 

1. Suppose it were true, as some assert, that it was 
organized, or came into existence, on the day of Pentecost, 
then there were upward of four thousand years from the 
time Adam was created before the Church was brought 
into existence. Then we would argue that there was no 
available mediator for the fallen race of Adam during 
that four thousand years ; therefore no available salvation 
possible. This hypothesis is so absolutely absurd that it is 
strange any sane mind would give it credence. 

2. Suppose it were true, as some assert, that the Church 
was first brought into existence with the family of Abra- 
ham when the covenant of circumcision was introduced, 



Lessons for Youth. 43 

then there was about two thousand years of human exist- 
ence upon earth, after the creation of man, before the 
Church was brought into existence, and that, too, of a 
race whose salvation depended wholly upon provisions of 
mercy which were to be made known through the Church, 
with its associates and agencies of salvation, Christ Jesus 
being the Head of the Church. This hypothesis is also 
irreconcilable to reason and revelation. We would argue 
that the Lord and King either would not or could not 
provide for those who lived in that period in which it is 
said there was no Church, and consequently no available 
Mediator. To assert either of these positions is to slan- 
der the Creator and flatly contradict revelation. 

3. But some verily believe that John the Baptist orig- 
inated the Church, or that it came into existence through 
him and his ministry. Well, let us notice this proposition 
a little, and see if there is any truth in the position. Did 
John even intimate by any expression in his ministry that 
he was to organize, or set up in any way, a new Church? 
Or did he intimate that he was the founder of a Church in 
any way? If you answer in the affirmative, then I ask. 
Where can that expression be found? and what is it that 
even intimates that John was the originator of the Church 
in any way, or that it was to be brought into existence 
through him or his ministry? It is a reasonable supposi- 
tion that if the Church was to be brought into existence 
by or through John, there would have been some expres- 
sion used by John, or by the prophets, that would have 
taught that peculiar part of his ministry; yet we have not 
found the expression, nor even an intimation to that effect. 
His peculiar mission was expressed in the language of 
prophecy, about seven hundred years before John made 
his appearance, by Isaiah (xl. 3): "The voice of him that 
crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, 



44 Lessons for Youth. 

make straight in the desert a highway for our God." And 
then, in describing what the Lord would do when he came, 
it is said in the tenth and eleventh verses : " Behold the 
Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall 
rule for him ; behold his reward is with him, and his work 
before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he 
shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his 
bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." 
Again, prophecy asserts of John (Mai. iii. 1) : " Behold I will 
send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me ; 
and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his tem- 
ple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in ; 
behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." . Now note 
what is said of John in Luke iii. 4 : "As it is written in 
the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The 
voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way 
of the Lord, make his paths straight." Again, when John 
was interrogated as to who he was (John i. 23), " He said, 
I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make 
straight the way of the Lord, as said the Prophet Esaias." 
John's definition of his mission, in the language quoted, 
confirms the truth of prophecy in regard to himself. He 
made no pretensions as a lawgiver, but preached repent- 
ance, and baptized the people unto a belief of the coming 
of Jesus Christ, which event had long been foretold even 
by Moses, who taught of the Christ under the appellation 
of " her Seed," and of that "Prophet that was to be raised 
up," and by various other expressions. Both Malachi and 
John assert the existence of the Church prior to the coin- 
ing of Jesus Christ, and indirectly call it Christ's Church 
under other names. Malachi calls it "his temple," and 
John calls it "his garner," so that it was not the mission 
of Jesus Christ, as manifested in the flesh, to originate the 
Church, but to perfect the ritual of the Church, and adapt 



Lessons for Youth. 45 

it to the wants of the race in all coming time under a form 
of ritual which should assert that the prophecies had been 
fulfilled, that Jesus Christ, the true Sacrifice, had been 
offered up ; and under that perfected ritual the gospel has 
been preached since the days when the Son of God, in the 
person of Jesus Christ, was upon earth. It is the identical 
Church, in all ages of the Adamic family upon earth, un- 
der different forms of ritual. The sacramental passover 
and the paschal lamb have been and are now standing 
proofs of this truth. 

4. As another source of proof and argument, we offer 
the wandering apostate Jews, who rejected Jesus Christ as 
the Messiah, the sent Son of God, the expected Redeemer. 
The prophecies describing the curse which should come 
upon them for their rejection of Jesus Christ have been 
fulfilled, we might say, to the letter, even to the last jot 
and tittle. They have been a hiss and a by-word; they 
have been wanderers ; they have been as sheep without a 
shepherd ; they were broken off by unbelief from the good 
olive-tree, while the Gentiles have been grafted in, as ex- 
pressed in Romans xi. The good olive-tree, the Church, 
with Christ as its Head and Lawgiver, has been an agency 
of available salvation to the Adamic family in all ages of 
their existence upon earth. 

I love to think and read, and would that I were a ready 
writer. There have been so many people misled and per- 
plexed upon this subject that it would be a willing task 
to impart satisfactory instruction to them as to the one 
Church, one Mediator, one Lawgiver, one Saviour, in all 
ages of the world. 



46 Lessons for Youth. 

LESSON XT. 

Adam and Christ were ESotli Representative 
Personages, or Characters. 

As a further confirmation that the Church, as it is now 
called, began with and embraced Adam, we offer the fol- 
lowing thoughts. Romans v. 14: "Nevertheless, death 
reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not 
sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who 
was the figure of him that was to come." If you will 
read the chapter from which this text is selected, you will 
find that Adam and Christ, in their representative charac- 
ters and relations to the fallen race, form the basis of dis- 
course. It is said (1 Cor. xv. 45-49): "And so it is written, 
The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last 
Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit, that was 
not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and 
afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the 
earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. 
As is the earthy, such are they also tha,t are earthy; and 
as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall 
also bear the image of the heavenly." In proof that these 
expressions embrace Adam and Christ as representative 
characters, and that the descendants were to share their 
likeness, we quote 1 John iii. 1,2:" Behold what manner of 
love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be 
called the sons of God ; therefore the world krioweth us not, 
because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of 
God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we 
know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him ; for 
we shall see him as he is." This text speaks of the Chris- 
tians as being called the sons of God through Christ as the 
manifestation of the love of God, and that the Christian 
shall be like him, Christ. Now, mark that Adam was called 



Lessons for Youth. 47 

the son of God also. (Luke iii. 38, and Gen. v. 1.) "In 
the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made 
he him." The likeness of God that was forfeited in the 
first Adam is brought back through the last or second 
Adam, who was Christ. It is said (2 Cor. v. 19) "that 
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not 
imputing their trespasses unto them ; and hath committed 
unto us the word of reconciliation. " By the expression 
"the world/' in this connection, we understand the Adamic 
race, not a part of them only. Again, in Hebrews ii. 9 : 
" But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the 
angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and 
honor ; that he by the grace of God should taste death for 
every man." By this expression, "every man," we under- 
stand the whole of the Adamic family. The conclusion 
is inevitable that Adam and Christ were both representa- 
tive characters. The first Adam represents his posterity 
as sinners ; the second Adam, Christ, represents the fallen 
Adamic family as redeemed through his mediation. The 
first Adam sinned, and involved his posterity ; the second 
Adam died for sin, and as verily redeemed the fallen pos- 
terity as it was involved in the sin of the first Adam. 



LESSON XVI. 

Adam tlie Kigure of Christ. 

In what respect, or in what sense, was Adam the figure 
of Christ? 

1. If w T e consider the first Adam in his compound of 
natures, as expressed by Moses, " a living soul," a composi- 
tion of soul and body, then we have a profound enigma in 
his being — a mystery that human genius has utterly failed 
to understand ; yet this mystery has been a study of all 



48 Lessons for Youth. 

ages. Much has been thought, written, and read upon 
"What is inan?" He is possessed of a material body and 
an immaterial soul, or spirit ; and after the lapse of thou- 
sands of years of study and attempt at the comprehension 
of man by men, yet man in his twofold nature remains 
an incomprehensible mystery to himself. He has reached 
the point to know that he is composed of these two ele- 
ments of existence, but the manner, the how, and the why 
of this compound of existence of soul and body is as it 
has been in all the past to him — an incomprehensible mys- 
tery. Here is a field of thought upon which we might 
dwell with delight. 

2. But we pass to notice that the second . Adam, in 
the person of Jesus Christ, was a much more diffi- 
cult problem to solve ; for he was both God and man in 
his composition of being. He had a body and a soul as 
other men, yet he was God in man ; he was God manifest 
in the flesh. This mystery of existence in the person of 
Jesus Christ has been made an argument in the minds of 
skeptics for rejecting the truth of his existence as such. 
The skeptical man imagines that he has a sure foundation 
of justification upon which to stand in defense of his re- 
jection of Jesus Christ, because he utterly fails to compre- 
hend the mystery of Him who was to be a suitable person, 
or compound of persons, to be a Mediator between God 
and man. Mere man alone was not, could not be, a suitable 
mediator ; mere man alone could not have paid the debt 
and atoned for the sin of his equal, since he must account 
for himself, and consequently possessed no merit beyond 
himself. In this mystery of existence the first Adam was a 
figure of him who was to come — Christ, the second Adam. 

3. A figure is a dim outline of a reality ; so in this 
Adam was a dim outline of the mystery of the existence 
of Christ as manifest in the flesh. 



Lessors for Youth. 49 

4. The eternity of spiritual existence is stamped upon 
the first Adam, in that " he became a living soul." So the 
eternal existence of the Christ personage is everywhere 
asserted. 

5. The moral purity of the first Adam, as placed in 
paradisiacal happiness and friendly communion with his 
Creator, was a figure, a dim outline, of the purity of Him 
in whom there was no guile, who knew no sin, who was 
" holy, harmless, and undefiled." 

6. The first Adam, in his majestic greatness as lord 
of this lower world, with his stores of knowledge, his 
"righteousness and true holiness," was only a figure of 
the superior who was to come. His spirituality and 
his eternity were dimly outlined in the person of the 
first Adam. 

7. Let us learn humbly to adore the Mediator between 
God and men. Let all the angels worship him. Let the 
King of glory come in; let us crown him Lord of all. 
Christ is all and in all. 

8. The first Adam was the father and progenitor of all 
other men, and his posterity bears his image. So Jesus 
Christ, "the everlasting Father/' is the fountain and 
source of all spiritual life and existence in the world of 
grace, and from him they derive their spiritual being, and 
his image they bear (1 Cor. xv. 49), and from him "the 
whole family in heaven and earth is named." (Eph. iii. 
15.) The first Adam is not the immediate but the remote 
father of our flesh, for "one generation goes and another 
comes ; " but Jesus Christ is the immediate Father of all 
his saints, as the silvery moon derives its light immedi- 
ately from the sun, the fountain of day. " The first man 
Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made 
a quickening spirit. The first man is of the earth, earthy ; 
the second man is the Lord from heaven. And as we 



50 Lessons fob Youth. 

have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear 
the image of the heavenly." (1 Cor. xv. 45-49.) 

9. Adam was the first covenant head and public rep- 
resentative, and as such was made lord and king of the 
world under law immediately from his Creator. His do- 
minion was great, but it was not universal. By and through 
Jesus Christ, the second Adam, the new covenant was 
brought in, and he was also a representative of the fallen 
race of the first Adam. The dominion of Jesus Christ is 
universal, and consequently far excels the dominion of the 
first Adam. Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of 
lords. His kingdom ruleth over all. He can, if he pleases, 
extinguish the stars and the sun, which shine by his per- 
mission. "Of his government and peace there shall be 
no end." (Isa. ix. 7.) 

10. The first Adam disobeyed an easy precept; the 
last Adam obeyed the most difficult command. The first 
Adam, being a man, affected to be as God ; the second 
Adam, being God, was found in fashion as a man. The 
first Adam was assaulted by the devil in paradise, and 
was overcome ; the second Adam was tempted in the wil- 
derness by the same malicious spirit, but he was a con- 
queror. The first Adam, breaking the law in one point, 
was guilty of all ; the last Adam, observing it in every 
point, did magnify and make it honorable. Blessed be 
God that "where sin abounded, grace hath much more 
abounded ; that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so 
might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life 
by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. v. 20, 21.) 

11. The first Adam had access to the tree of life 
(Gen. ii. 9-22), which by transgression was lost. Christ, 
as the second Adam, restores or brings back that blessing. 
Revelation ii. 7: " He that hath an ear let him hear what 
the Spirit saith unto the churches : To him that overcometh 



Lessons for Youth. 51 

will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst 
of the paradise of God." Also Revelation xxii. 1, 2 : "And 
he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, 
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In 
the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, 
was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of 
fruits, and yielded her fruit every month ; and the leaves 
of the tree were for the healing of the nations." These 
expressions of the tree of life are found in the book of 
Revelation, and some of them connect the last chapter of 
Revelation with the first of Genesis as books of Church 
history. The ritual of the Church began with the first 
Adam, and was perfected with and by the second Adam, 
who was Christ. 



LESSON XVII. 

Religion of All Ages tlie Same. 

By the term religion I mean the true worship or service 
of God. In what does it consist? Does it not consist in 
three things, viz., (1) to believe God, (2) to love God, (3) to 
obey God ? 

Was Adam's religion, previous to his sin and fall, any 
thing essentially different from these three things ? It has 
been asserted, preached, printed, and contended that 
"Adam was placed under a law of works, which he 
could not keep." If this were true, then there is likely 
some truth in fatality, as taught by some, " that God had 
foreordained whatsoever comes to pass." If this were true, 
the act of Adam was under a decree that he could not 
evade. This notion is so utterly inconsistent with revela- 
tion and reason that it is astonishing that it should have 
any advocates among intelligent people in any age of the 
world. 



52 Lessons for Youth. 

Again, that Adam was placed under a law of works 
that in any sense excluded faith in God, and love for God, 
we deny. As proof of this, we offer Hebrews xi. 6 : " But 
without faith it is impossible to please him ; for he that 
cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a re- 
warder of them that diligently seek him." This is a rule 
of universal application to man in all ages, including 
Adam and his posterity. One of the tests of Adam's in- 
tegrity was a temptation to doubt, or disbelieve, the truth 
of what God had said to him ; and here was the strength 
of the argument as presented by the serpent, Satan, and 
upon this point of temptation he yielded and sinned. 
Adam's faith faltered ; he doubted, yielded, sinned, and 
fell. Faith in God must lie at the very foundation of all 
true religion. Nor can there be any true religion without 
love for God. These two essentials must exist before there 
is, or can be, any acceptable obedience to God. Obedi- 
ence may be regarded as a fruit that naturally results from 
faith in and love for God. The proof is John xiv. 15, 21, 
23, 24: "If ye love me, keep my commandments. He 
that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is 
that loveth me ; and he that loveth me shall be loved of 
my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself 
to him. If a man love me he will keep my words; and 
my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and 
make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth 
not my sayings." Hence it is said that "love is the fulfill- 
ing of the law." (Rom. xiii. 10.) Hence that eulogy 
pronounced upon this central foundation principle of all 
true obedience, under the name of charity, in 1 Corinth- 
ians xiii., the closing words of which are, "Now abideth 
faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these 
is charity," or love. Adam's religion, then, was a religion 
of these three elements, or essentialities, prior to his sin 



Lessons fok Youth. 53 

and fall — a belief or faith in God, a love for God, and 
obedience to God. All true religion ever since the days of 
Adam has been made up of, or embraced, these three essen- 
tials. These constitute the sum and substance of the 
teachings of Jesus Christ as set forth in the New Testa- 
ment. This was the religion of all those ancient saints 
enumerated in Hebrews xi. This is the identical true re- 
ligion of this day, and the only religion that will stand the 
test before the dread tribunal of the last judgment-day. 
When the Adamic family stand in all their vast numbers 
of countless millions, of all ages, and of all nations, kin- 
dred, and tongues, they will. stand upon an equality plat- 
form of the possibility of salvation. In this respect there 
is a universality of equality in the divine dealings and ad- 
ministration to all men in all ages of the world, and there- 
fore it is just as easy for one man as for another to believe, 
love, and obey God, so far as the divine provisions are 
concerned. In this respect "there is no respect of persons 
with God ; but in every nation they that fear God and 
work righteousness are accepted with him." (Acts x. 34, 
35.) Adam was holy as the model character of the fam- 
ily. To his posterity it is said, " Follow peace with all 
men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the 
Lord." (Heb. xii. 14.) 

Let us abbreviate a little, viz. : 

1. There is one family of descendants from the first 
Adam, of the earth, earthy — naturally. 

2. There is one family of descendants from the second 
Adam, from heaven, heavenly — spiritually. (1 Cor. xv. 
45-48.) 

3. There is one ; and only one, Mediator between God and 
men. 

4. There is one, and only one, Lawgiver to the Adamic 
family, or Church. 



54 Lessons fob Youth. 

5. There is one, and only one, Saviour from sin. 

6. There is one, and only one, Church of God. 

7. There is one, and only one, true religion in all ages of 
the world, so far as the Adamic race is concerned, what- 
ever might have been the peculiar character of the ritual 
under which they have lived or died, whether before or 
since the incarnation and death of Jesus Christ as the Me- 
diator. 

8. Every man, woman, and child of the Adamic race, in 
their proper relation, belong to and are members of that 
one family, or Church, except where they have, like the 
first Adam, forfeited that relation by willful transgression. 

9. The way or manner of visible recognition of member- 
ship in the Church, from the days of Abraham to the com- 
ing of Jesus Christ, was by typical circumcision of the 
flesh, which was typical of the true circumcision of the 
heart. 

The typical circumcision was administered to both adults 
and infant children; and that law of circumcision was 
given by Christ the Lawgiver as typical of the circumcision 
of the heart, which he alone could administer by the Holy 
Spirit. It was this identical religion that the psalmist 
recognized in Psalm li. 10-13 : " Create in me a clean heart, 
O God ; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not 
away from thy presence ; and take not thy Holy Spirit 
from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation ; and 
uphold me with thy free Spirit. Then will I teach trans- 
gressors thy ways ; and sinners shall be converted unto 
thee." This identical religion is virtually asserted to have 
been the true religion of Noah, and the righteous of his 
day, in that expression in Genesis vi. 3, "And the Lord 
said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man." How 
precisely this accords with the religion set forth in the 
New Testament, as uttered by Jesus Christ (John iv. 24) : 



Lessons for Youth. 55 

"God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship 
him in spirit and in truth." 

This identical religion was the religion of Abel. His 
religion was based upon faith in God, as distinctly asserted 
by the sacred historian (Heb. xi. 4) : " By faith Abel of- 
fered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by 
which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testi- 
fying of his gifts ; and by it he being dead yet speaketh." 
Faith is defined as of a twofold character in Heb. xi. 6 : 
(1) A belief in the existence of God, and (2) a confidence, 
reliance, or trust in God. The first element of faith may 
exist separate and apart from the second element — trust, 
or reliance upon God. The first element may exist even 
in devils ; therefore it is said the " devils believe and trem- 
ble." True religion combines both of these elements of 
faith. In all ages of the world — whether in Adam, when 
in the likeness and image of God, or in Abel, Noah, Lot, 
Abraham, Job, Daniel, or in Stephen, Peter, or Paul, or 
any others who may have lived in a later period of the 
history of the Church, or family of the Lord — this faith in 
God, joined with love to God, produces as a fruit obedience 
to God. This is the religion that Jesus Christ taught to 
the inquiring lawyer (Matt. xxii. 37-40) : "Jesus said unto 
him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the 
first and great commandment. And the second is like 
unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these 
two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." 
Jesus explains this second commandment in Matt vii. 12: 
" Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should 
do to you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the law and 
the prophets." These expressions accord with Eccles. xii. 
13, 14: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:* 
Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the 



56 Lessons for Youth. 

whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into 
judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or 
whether it be evil." 

This identical religion in its essential elements was taught 
by Micah (vi. 8) : a He hath shewed thee, O man, what is 
good ; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do 
justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy 
God ? " True religion is a simple, reasonable, easily under- 
stood, divine requisition upon man. It is a system of hon- 
esty toward God and man ; it is a system of justice to- 
ward God and man ; it is a system of mercy toward each 
other, as we expect mercy from God. True religion is nec- 
essarily the same in its essential elements in all ages of the 
world, whether in the Old or the New Testament periods 
of its history and existence — faith in, love for, and obedi- 
ence to God. 



LESSON XVIII, 

Synoptical Review of Wessons. 

A brief review of some of the lessons presented as sub- 
jects for investigation may not be amiss at this place, for 
the reason that some of them lie at the very foundation of 
the religion taught by the Scriptures ; therefore a correct 
understanding of them is essentially important to every 
earnest inquirer after truth. As an introductory lesson 
I insisted upon a knowledge and use of the references as 
an aid to the correct understanding of the Scriptures ; thus 
furnishing to you a means by which you could detect erro- 
neous teaching, from whatever source it might come. The 
lessons have been in part to show you that you could make 
the Old Testament aid you to understand the New Testa- 
ment, and that you could make the New Testament an 
aid to the understanding of the Old Testament; and thus 



Lessons for Youth. 57 

to show you that the Old Testament was as verily the his- 
tory of the Church prior to the coming of Jesus Christ as 
the New Testament is the history of the Church under the 
immediate ministry of Jesus Christ in the flesh, and of that 
of the apostles. We have alluded to the revealed truths 
that there was only one Mediator, one Lawgiver, one Sav- 
iour ; and that all law has come to the Church from first to 
last by and through the one Lawgiver, Christ. We have 
insisted that there is and has been only one Church from 
Adam to the present, yet under different names and under 
different circumstances. We have alluded to the changes 
of ritual, or rules of worship, which in the nature of things 
marked its history and final perfection of ritual, which 
was to be perfected by Jesus Christ, the Lawgiver. We 
have now in our train of thought reached a point where 
it is proper to notice the completion of the ritual of the 
Church under the ministry of John, and Jesus Christ, and 
the Holy Ghost. ^__^^_^ 

LESSON XIX. 

John, as a Priest, Baptized Jesus. 

It was intimated in the last lesson that we had come in 
our train of thought to the finishing, or perfection, of the 
ritual of the Church under the ministry of John, and Jesus 
Christ, and the Holy Ghost. We prefer to blend these 
three personages at this point in our remarks, for the reason 
that they fill a place and period in the history of the 
Church which seem to be inseparable — each of these per- 
sons filling a mission peculiar to himself, and yet con- 
necting with each other — and proceed to notice John in his 
peculiar mission. 

John was a priest. The word priest, as used in the Old 
Testament, was another word, or term, for our word min- 
ister, as used at present. The word priest means a man in 
5 



58 Lessons for Youth. 

orders, a clergyman ; the word clergyman means a min- 
ister of the gospel. With this definition of the word priest, 
we offer some thoughts touching the special ministry or 
priesthood of John, as the forerunner of Jesus Christ, 
whose peculiar mission was to prepare the way of the Lord, 
and to introduce the person of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. 
It would seem appropriate that some noted or remarkable 
personage should immediately precede the personal appear- 
ance of Him who had been the subject of prophecy for so 
many thousand years, and had been the central object of 
the faith of the whole Church up to that time, and upon 
whom the hopes of the world of mankind in all ages were 
to concentrate as their only source of salvation. John was 
a peculiar or extraordinary personage, appropriately so for 
his extraordinary mission. He (John) had been the sub- 
ject of prophecy as being an extraordinary man. About 
three hundred and ninety-seven years before his appear- 
ance, it was said by the prophet: "Behold, I will send 
you Elijah the prophet, .... and he shall turn the 
heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the 
children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth 
with a curse." (Mai. iv. 5, 6.) This is the last re- 
corded prophecy of the Old Testament Scriptures. His 
birth is announced by an angel, and his name also, under 
such peculiar circumstances that Zacharias seemed to doubt 
its truth, and asked, "Whereby shall I know this?" The 
angel said: "Behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to 
speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, 
because thou believest not my words, which shall be ful- 
filled in their season." (Luke i. 20.) This prophecy by 
the angel was fulfilled, and is recorded in Luke i. 57-64. 
This prophetic angel announced also of John, "And he 
shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his moth- 
er's womb." (Verse 15.) Of this extraordinary personage, 



Lessons for Youth. 59 

Jesus said: "A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more 
than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written, Be- 
hold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall 
prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, 
Among them that are born of women there hath not risen 
a greater than John the Baptist. . . . . And if ye will 
receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come." (Matt. xi. 
9-14.) These expressions from prophecy, and from Jesus 
Christ, assert that John was a peculiar man, and indicate 
his peculiar mission. We now notice the fact of his priest- 
hood : 

1. His father Zacharias was a priest. 

2. His mother Elizabeth was of the daughters of Aaron, 
who was a priest. (Luke i. 5.) "And they w T ere both 
righteous before God, walking in all the commandments 
and ordinances of the Lord blameless." (Verse 6.) John 
was their first son. (Verse 7.) 

3. Therefore John was born of the lineage of the priest- 
hood, and was thereby born a priest according to the law 
regulating the priesthood. (Num. iii. 5-13, 49-51 ; viii. 
16-19.) 

4. The manner or law of induction into the office of the 
priesthood (Ex. xxix. 1-35; Lev. viii. 1-36; xxi. 17-24) 
specifies the defects which should not exist in the physical 
organization of his person, as well as that he should be 
born of the tribe of Levi, of which tribe Aaron and his 
sons were set apart to the high-priesthood. This perfec- 
tion of physical organism was essential, because the typ- 
ical priesthood adumbrated the true priesthood of Jesus 
Christ, which was to be brought in at the proper time. 
All of these essentialities as a proper person for the 
priesthood under the law did exist in the person of John 
as the harbinger of Jesus Christ. 

5. The law demanded that the candidate for the priest- 



60 Lessons for Youth. 

hood should be thirty years old before he was eligible to 
the priesthood. The time that John entered his ministerial 
office — viz., "the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius 
Csesar " — is said to accord precisely with the thirtieth year 
of his age. (Luke iii. 1-3.) There is another source of 
proof of the correctness of this position, viz.: John was 
six months older than the babe of Bethlehem in the person 
of Jesus ; and Jesus was about thirty years old when John 
baptized him. Compare Luke i. 25-35; iii. 23, for the 
proof. These recorded facts clearly indicate that John 
had been performing his ministerial or priestly office about 
six months when he baptized the person of Jesus. 

6. As another proof that John was a priest, and was so 
recognized by the existing authorities of his day, it is dis- 
tinctly stated that "John fulfilled his course" as a priest. 
(Acts xiii. 25.) The priesthood was divided into courses. 
(1 Chron. xxiii. 6.) Zacharias was of the course of Abiah. 
(Luke i. 5.) 

7. Jesus asserts the priesthood of John indirectly, and 
thereby its authority under the law, in that expression to 
John : "[Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." 
(Matt. iii. 15.) The term righteousness, as thus used by 
Jesus in reference to his baptism by John, certainly had 
reference to some law that should be observed touching the 
baptism of Jesus by John. That law had doubtless a two- 
fold meaning and application to Jesus Christ, as the Me- 
diator between God and men. One of its meanings and 
applications^was that law touching the priesthood; for 
Jesus Christ was to be, and was, the true High-priest, "a 
Priest forever" in the perfection of his twofold character 
of humanity and divinity. As to his humanity, he was 
" made of a woman, made under the law" (Gal. iv. 4) ; 
and as a],priest, he must needs be consecrated to the 
priesthood according to the law. This was what Christ 



Lessons ior Yout . 61 

contended with John should be done in his baptism with 
water, as to his humanity, so far as the baptism with water 
was concerned or necessary. 

8. Jesus Christ indirectly appealed to the authority of 
John's baptism as the legal authority which he exercised 
in the temple, when he was asked: "By what authority 
doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority? 
And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask 
you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in likewise will tell 
you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of 
John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they 
reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From 
heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe 
him? But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people: 
for all hold John as a prophet. And they answered Jesus, 
and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither 
tell I you by what authority I do these things." (Matt. 
xxi. 23-27.) Mark what he had done, and what he said 
touching his authority in the temple, as recorded in Mat- 
thew xxi. 12, 13: "And Jesus went into the temple of 
God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the 
temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, 
and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them. 
It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; 
but ye have made it a den of thieves." This official act of 
purging the temple, and his claiming it as his house, is an 
exact fulfillment of what John and Malachi had foretold 
that he, Jesus Christ, would do when he did come; Malachi 
calling it "his temple," and calling Jesus Christ "the 
messenger of the covenant," and saying of him : "He is like 
a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap; and he shall sit as a 
refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of 
Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer 
unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." (Mai. iii. 2, 3.) 



62 Lessons for Youth. 

John says of Jesus Christ : " He shall baptize you with the 
Holy Ghost, and with fire ; w T hose fan is in his hand, and 
he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat 
into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with un- 
quenchable fire." (Matt. iii. 11, 12.) Jesus asserted that 
he had not come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to 
fulfill. (Matt. v. 17.) How then could he have gone into 
the temple and assumed authority over it, and purged it as 
he did, as a legal occupant, calling it "My house," under 
the law, if he had not been properly, legally inducted into 
office according to the law ? There is a cluster of important 
truths and incidents connected with this part of John's 
ministry, or priesthood, and the priesthood of Jesus Christ, 
that places the fact beyond contradiction that John was a 
priest according to the law, and that his act in baptizing 
the person of Jesus with water was a priestly act, or wash- 
ing, in accordance with the law. There is another recorded 
example of authority and power exercised over the temple 
by Jesus: "And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus 
went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that 
sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of 
money sitting; and when he had made a scourge of small 
cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, 
and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and 
overthrew the tables ; and said unto them that sold doves, 
Take these things hence ; make not my Father's house a 
house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered that 
it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." 
(John ii. 13-17.) The objecting Jews demanded of Jesus, 
"What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest 
these things?" (Verse 18.) The corruption of the temple 
service and the moral degradation that naturally resulted 
from its corruption furnish a good reason w r hy John's 
ministry was in part a ministration of repentance ; and also 



Lessons for Youth. 63 

furnish a reason why it is said of John, as a part of his 

ministry, that it was to "prepare the way of the Lord, 
make his paths straight." (Matt. iii. 3.) 



LESSOR XX. 

John Baptized Jesus Preparatory to his Higher 
Anointing- by the Holy Spirit. 

As proof that the words of Jesus to John in reference to 
his baptism — " Let it be so now, for thus it becometh us to 
fulfill all righteousness" — were an appeal to the law of 
Moses, we offer the following expressions which are made 
of that law as applicable to Jesus Christ, by which we 
propose to prove that Jesus insisted upon the fulfilling of 
the Mosaic law, or ordinances, as applicable to himself: 

1. What Jesus says of that law. In Luke xxiv. 44: 
"That all things must be fulfilled, which are written in the 
law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, con- 
cerning me." Again Jesus says, in John v. 46 : " For had 
ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he 
wrote of me." Again Jesus says, in Matthew v. 17, 18 : 
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the 
prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For 
verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot 
or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be 
fulfilled." 

2. Some of the things written by Moses about Jesus 
Christ. We remark that the first intimation of the Christ 
character is given by Moses in that expression recorded in 
Genesis iii. 15: "And I will put enmity between thee and 
the woman, and between thy seed and her seed ; it shall 
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This 
expression of Moses in reference to the Christ character 
is explained in Galatians iv. 4, 5 : " But when the full- 



64 Lessons for Youth. 

ness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made 
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that 
were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of 
sons." This expression in reference to the law, in its de- 
mands upon Jesus Christ, and the absolute necessity that 
was laid upon Jesus Christ to fulfill its demands, together 
with what Jesus says of the things " written in the law of 
Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning 
me " (Jesus), amounts to a demonstration as to what law 
it was under which Jesus was baptized by John, and proves 
beyond doubt that Jesus had reference to that law in his 
language to John : " Thus it becometh us to fulfill all 
righteousness." This language of Jesus also recognizes 
•John's authority as a priest to perform this official legal 
act of purification, or baptism, as an emblematical or 
typical ordinance under the law, as preparatory to the 
anointing with the Holy Spirit. There are those who deny 
the priesthood of John, and assert that his baptizing of 
Jesus had nothing to do with the priesthood of Jesus 
Christ; and as a basis for their rejecting the priesthood of 
John, and his priestly act in baptizing the person of Jesus, 
as a part of his consecration as a Priest, they quote the 
scriptures which speak of the priesthood of Jesus Christ as 
" a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek," viz. : 
Psalm ex. 4, " The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, 
Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek;" 
and Hebrews vi. 20, "Whither the forerunner is for us en- 
tered, even Jesus, made a high-priest forever after the order 
of Melchizedek." These are subjects of no trivial import, 
and they are subjects upon which a diversity of opinions 
have been entertained. Upon those different opinions we 
are not disposed at present to offer any thoughts in the 
shape of criticism, or to point out what we regard as their 
inconsistencies. If we prove our positions to be correct, 



Lessons for Youth. 65 

then that will be a refutation of all other opinions, and 
therefore the best criticism that could be given. We pro- 
pose to give proofs and arguments which are satisfactory 
to us as to the true character of the priesthood of Jesus 
Christ, and why he was baptized by John, and how that 
baptism was performed, before we dismiss this subject of 
his priesthood. 

3. In addition to what has been said of the law under 
which Jesus was baptized, let us notice what is said of the 
law which was fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Galatians iii. 24, 
25 : " Wherefore the law was our school-master to bring us 
unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after 
that faith is come, we are no longer under a school-master." 
Romans x. 4: "For Christ is the end of the law for right- 
eousness to every one that believeth." Ephesians ii. 13-16 : 
" But now, in Christ Jesus, ye, who sometime were far off, 
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our 
peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down 
the middle wall of partition between us; having abol- 
ished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of command- 
ments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself 
of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he 
might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, 
having slain the enmity thereby." Colossians ii. 14: 
"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was 
against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of 
the way, nailing it to his cross." I regard these expres- 
sions, thus recorded in the Scriptures, as being proof posi- 
tive, showing what law it was that was fulfilled to the last 
jot and tittle by Jesus Christ, and that Jesus asserts that 
it was the law of Moses in reference to himself that he said 
" must be fulfilled," in Luke xxiv. 44. It is therefore an 
inevitable conclusion that it was this law of ordinances 
that Jesus insisted should be fulfilled when be said to John 



66 Lessons for Youth. 

of his baptism, "Thus it becometh us to fulfill all right- 
eousness." These expressions made of "the law of com- 
mandments contained in ordinances/' that it was taken 
"out of the way" because "it was against us, . : nailing 
it to his cross," have no reference whatever to the moral law 
as contained in the Ten Commandments. They remain in 
as full force as when they were first written on tables of 
stone and delivered to Moses in Mount Sinai by the Law- 
giver, even the Christ of the Old Testament Scriptures, as 
well as the Christ of the New Testament. This identical 
Christ personage explains and enforces the moral law, as 
set forth in the Ten Commandments, in that memorable 
Sermon on the Mount. (Matt, v.-vii.) Yet, in the face 
of these facts and scriptures, there are those who assert 
that we are not under these commandments, nor are we to 
regard the Old Testament as proper authority for proof of 
the doctrines of our religion, because it — the Old Testa- 
ment — was "nailed to the cross, and taken out of the way," 
and thus apply that expression to all that was contained in 
the Old Testament — when we are distinctly informed what 
it was of the Old Testament that was "taken out of the 
way" by being "nailed to the cross." It was that law that 
was contained in types, shadows, sacrifices, purifyings, etc., 
that looked to Christ to come — that Christ must needs 
fulfill in person as the reality, or antitype. In him this 
shape of the ritual of the then existing Church was to end 
in that which was perfect; and by him the ritual, or law, 
was to be so changed and perfected as never to be changed 
any more, because perfected by him as the Lawgiver. 
Hence the necessity that John, as a priest, should baptize 
the person of Jesus under the law. 

4. As testimony from another source, in proof of the 
correctness of the position that John baptized Jesus ac- 
cording to the Mosaic ritual, we offer the expressions of 



Less6ns for Youth. 67 

Malachi and John, and remark that Malachi wrote his 
prophecy about four hundred years before the time of 
John and Jesus Christ's personal ministry ; and Malachi 
was the last prophet preceding John, and John was the 
last prophet preceding Jesus Christ, whose peculiar mission 
it was to prepare the way, and to point out and introduce 
Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Here note what John says of 
Jesus in Matthew iii. 11, 12: "He shall baptize you with 
the Holy Ghost, and with fire ; whose fan is in his hand, 
and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his 
wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with 
unquenchable fire." Now notice what is said by the 
Prophet Malachi: "Behold, I will send my messenger, and 
he shall prepare the way before me ; and the Lord, whom 
ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the mes- 
senger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: Behold, he 
shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide 
the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he ap- 
peareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' 
soap; and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; 
and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as 
gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an 
offering in righteousness." (Mai. iii. 1-3.) These two 
prophets represent Christ as coming — one to his garner 
with a fan in his hand, and that he will thoroughly purge 
his floor, etc. ; the other speaks of Christ as coming to his 
temple, and calls him "the Messenger of the covenant," 
as well as "Lord," and says "he shall sit as a refiner and 
purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi." 
This joint testimony of Malachi and John in regard to 
Christ's "temple" and "gamer" (or Church, if you please), 
Christ as the rightful Lord over it with his priestly au- 
thority, and a specific mention of the tribe of Levi (which 
tribe was set apart to the priesthood, and were but em- 



68 Lessons fob Youth. 

bleniatical representatives, or types, of Jesus Christ until 
he should come in person) ; and then the promise that he 
(Jesus Christ) shall purify the sons of Levi ; and these 
being nearly the last words in the Old Testament, cer- 
tainly carry with them proof of no minor importance 
of the priesthood of Jesus Christ, and of the obligations 
which rested upon him to fulfill the law touching the 
priesthood. May we not claim that the expression and 
promise that he (Jesus Christ) "shall purify the sons of 
Levi" implies that he (Jesus Christ) shall bring and im- 
part all that was implied in the emblematical, or typical, 
priesthood of the tribe of Levi, with its types, purifications, 
sacrifices, and emblematical mediations, that all of these 
would, and should, be perfected in and through the true 
High-priest in the person of Jesus Christ. 

There are some other remarkable expressions made by 
Malachi (chapter iv.). There are six verses in this last 
chapter of the Old Testament. Five of these verses are 
divided thus : The second and third verses are descriptive 
of Jesus Christ under the title " Sun of righteousness ;" 
the fourth verse reads, " Remember ye the law of Moses, 
my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for 
all Israel, with the statutes and judgments;" the fifth and 
sixth verses are descriptive of John the Baptist, under the 
name of Elijah the prophet, and a promise, or prophecy, 
that he should come, and what he should do. It is cer- 
tainly remarkable that the fourth verse is thus connected 
with the second and third verses and the fifth and sixth 
verses, that it is placed in between them in prophetic 
description of John and Jesus Christ, as if it (the law of 
Moses) was a connecting link, or essentiality, between 
those two illustrious personages; and the more so, as it 
enforces obedience to that law with its statutes and judg- 
ments, and asserts that it was commanded unto Moses "for 



j _jb;sso'Ns for- Youth. 69 

all Israel." Then, allowing that prophecy was true in its 
application to John and Jesus Christ, this law of Moses 
was observed, remembered, and kept, when John baptized 
Jesus. It was therefore the Mosaic law that Jesus insisted 
should be fulfilled in all righteousness. 

Again, Malachi asserts in this prophecy that the law, as 
given to Moses, was " for all Israel." The word " Israel " was 
the leading, or most prominent, name then used of the then 
existing Church, prior to the coming of Jesus Christ in the 
flesh, of which Stephen asserts that Israel was the Church 
in the wilderness. (See Acts vii. 37, 38.) In confirmation 
that Stephen was correct in his application of the name 
"Church" to Israel in the wilderness, we offer the fact 
that "Israel" is now one of the prominent names of the 
Church as used in the New Testament. John i. 47: "Jesus 
saw Nathanael coming to him and saith of him, Behold 
an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" This accords 
with Isaiah xlix. 3 : " Thou art my servant, O Israel, 
in whom I will be glorified." Hence called " the Israel of 
God." One of the prominent meanings of the word was 
piety — virtue, as expressed by Jesus, "in whom is no 
guile." This constituted " an Israelite indeed." There- 
fore the word Israel was then, and is now, a proper name 
for what we call the Church. That law, as given to Moses 
for all Israel, " was a shadow of good things to come." 
That " law was our school-master to bring us to Christ," 
and also to introduce Christ to the world as the wwld's 
Redeemer, by Christ's fulfilling its demands as our Medi- 
ator and our great High-priest. The testimony of Moses 
and the prophets all agree upon this subject, and Christ 
asserts the truth of the prophecies, and insists upon the 
fulfillment of the law as applicable to himself, when he 
demanded baptism at the hands of John. Therefore, the 
baptism of Jesus by John under the law of Moses was an 



70 Lessons for Youth. 

act, and for a purpose, essentially different in its meaning 
to that of the baptism of the multitudes whom John bap- 
tized. 

1. It was not unto repentance, for Jesus was not a prop- 
er subject upon whom to impose repentance. For he 
had " no sin." In him was " no guile." He " was holy, 
harmless, and undefiled." Why, then, baptize him unto 
repentance? The idea is an absurdity, if not blasphe- 
mous. 

2. It was not a baptism obligating Jesus to " believe on 
one who was to come," as John's baptism to others was. 
That would have been to impose a falsehood, and a tacit 
acknowledgment that the Messiah was yet to come. 

3. It was not a baptism intended as an example for us 
to follow, as some assert. 

(1) For Jesus was among the last, if not the very last 
subject, that John did baptize. 

(2) Jesus was about thirty years old when he was bap- 
tized by John. 

(3) The baptism of Jesus by John with water was at- 
tended with the visible, audible baptism of the Holy Spirit. 
This was a positive demonstration that his baptism with 
water by John was essentially different in its design and 
meaning to that of others whom John had baptized. 



LESSON XXI. 

The Xwofold Character of tlie Priesthood of Jesus 
Christ and his Consecration Correspond. 

The peculiar character of the priesthood of Jesus Christ 
is a subject upon which there has been a diversity of opin- 
ions entertained, even among writers of great ability. 
It is not my purpose to notice those different opinions, 
but to offer what we regard as the true scriptural teach- 



Lessons for Youth. 71 

ing upon this very important subject. We do this be- 
cause in regard to this matter many persons have been 
perplexed, and we hope that a satisfactory scriptural ex- 
planation can be given to some who desire to know the 
truth. 

We select as a collection of scriptures upon which to base 
our thoughts upon this subject, viz., Heb. vii. 11 ; Ps. ex. 
4; Matt. iii. 11-17: " If, therefore, perfection were by the 
Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the 
law), what farther need was there that another priest 
should rise after the order of Melchisedek, and not be 
called after the order of Aaron?" "The Lord hath 
sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever after 
the order of Melchisedek." "I indeed baptize you with 
water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is 
mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear ; he 
shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. . . . Then cometh 
Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of 
him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be bap- 
tized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answer- 
ing said unto him, Suffer it to be so now ; for thus it be- 
cometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered 
him. And Jesus when he was baptized, went up straight- 
way out of the water ; and, lo, the heavens were opened 
unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a 
dove, and lighting upon him ; and, lo, a voice from heaven, 
saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 

The prominent features of the twofold character of the 
priesthood of Jesus Christ are indicated in the collection of 
scriptures which we have offered as the basis of discourse, 
and a reason given why it was necessary that his pecul- 
iar character of priesthood should be brought in. The 
reason why it should be thus brought in is clearly in- 
dicated in Heb. vii. 11: "If, therefore, perfection were 



72 Lessons for Youth. 

by the Levitical priesthood, what further need was there 
that another priest should rise after the order of Mel- 
chisedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron?" 
The inefficiency of the Levitical order of priesthood is 
given as a reason why another order of priesthood should 
be brought in, and the Melchisedek order of priesthood 
is spoken of as a type of a higher order of priesthood. 
Some have asserted that the Levitical order of priesthood 
was not a type of the priesthood of Jesus Christ, and that 
therefore the baptism of Jesus by John had no reference 
whatever to the priesthood of Jesus Christ; and as proof 
conclusive to themselves upon this point, they allude to 
the Melchisedek type of priesthood of Jesus Christ. We 
reject this as an erroneous position, and propose to show that 
there was an essential necessity for both of those orders of 
priesthood, and also a necessity that both of those orders, 
or types, of priesthood should meet and be perfected in the 
person of Jesus Christ. All admit as revealed truth that 
the Melchisedek type of priesthood was met, or fulfilled, in 
the person of Jesus Christ, for this is distinctly stated, and 
it is stated as a higher order than that of the Levitical 
order; it therefore remains to be shown that the Levitical 
order was also a true type of the priesthood of Jesus Christ. 
Let us notice both these types of priesthood, and what they 
typically represented. The Mosaic or Levitical order was 
a type of the humanity of Jesus Christ ; the Melchisedek 
order was a type of the divinity of Jesus Christ. 

1. Let us notice briefly the Mosaic or Levitical order 
of priesthood as a type of the humanity of Jesus Christ. 
Moses was the true representative character of w T hat was 
called the Aaronic or Levitical order of priesthood. That 
Moses was a priest is distinctly stated Ps. xcix. 6 : " Moses 
and Aaron among his priests." Aaron seems to have been 
an inferior to Moses in some respects, yet he acted as an 



Lesions for Youth. 73 

aid to Moses in certain things. Aaron was spokesman 
for Moses. He was as a mouth to Moses. Moses was to 
put words in Aaron's mouth ; Moses was to be to Aaron 
instead of God. (Ex. iv. 17.) Moses said of Christ 
(Deut. xviii. 15), " The Lord thy God will raise up unto 
thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, 
like unto me ; unto him ye shall hearken." Let us notice 
some of the features of character in which Jesus Christ 
may be said to have been like unto Moses. 

(1) Moses was saved alive contrary to the decree of the 
King of Egypt, and the king's daughter adopted the child, 
and called his name Moses, she said, " because I drew him 
out of the water." (Ex. ii. 10.) The child Jesus was 
preserved contrary to a similar decree by Herod the king. 
Then there is some likeness in their miraculous preserva- 
tion in infancy. 

(2) Moses as a minister under God was a deliverer of 
Israel from Egyptian bondage. Jesus Christ is the great 
Deliverer of the Israel of God from the bondage of sin and 
Satan's power. Then there is some likeness between Moses 
and Jesus Christ in this important feature of character. 

(3) Moses wrought miracles and performed wonders in 
proof of his mission, such as that the opposing king con- 
sented that Israel might go out of bondage. The most ef- 
fectual of all his wonders seemed to have been that of 
death, even the death of the first-born of all the families of 
the Egyptians. Jesus Christ wrought miracles and per- 
formed wonders in proof of his mission. The most effect- 
ual of the wonders of his wonderful life were those at- 
tendant upon his wonderful death and resurrection. At 
his death his crucifiers exclaimed, "Truly this was the 
Son of God!" At his resurrection the seal of the king 
was broken; the guard of soldiers were not able to pre- 
vent it — " the keepers did shake and become as dead men. " 

6 



74 Lessons for Youth. 

How like that memorable night of death in Egypt, and how 
like that wonderful overthrow of Pharaoh and his hosts in 
pursuit of Israel when the walls of water closed in upon 
them in the Ked Sea ! The enemies of Jesus Christ have 
never recovered from the victories of his death and resur- 
rection. The infidel and the skeptic to this day do not know 
what to do with those wonderful facts of recorded history. 
There are some beautiful features of likeness between the 
eventful lives and histories of Moses and of Jesus Christ. 

(4) Moses is spoken of as a lawgiver — and so he was in 
an important sense, under divine direction — but Jesus 
Christ is the one Lawgiver. "Him shall ye hear in all 
things." (Acts iii. 23.) 

(5) Moses was a mediator under divine appointment be- 
tween God and his people Israel. As such he pleaded for 
them when it was necessary ; he offered sacrifices for them ; 
he purified them emblematically under divine direction; he 
offered to die for their sins. In these respects, what Moses 
did literally for Israel, Jesus Christ does spiritually for his 
people; and Jesus did die for the sins of the people. "He 
tasted death for every man." 

(6) May we not say of Moses, as it is said of Jesus 
Christ, that "he came by water and blood;" since he 
(Moses) was drawn out of the w T ater, and since it was by 
the sprinkling of the blood of the lamb in Egypt, with its 
results, which conquered Pharaoh and effected the liberty 
of Israel, and the slaying of the first-born of the Egypt- 
ians? And under the solemn realities associated with this 
sprinkling of blood, "not a dog was to move his tongue 
against man or beast of the Israelites, that they might 
know how that the Lord did put a difference between the 
Egyptians and Israel. " (Ex. xi. 7.) Then, to complete the 
victory, Moses leads Israel through the Ked Sea, as by dry 
land, and the Egyptians in pursuit are drowned. Then all 



Lessons for Youth. 75 

Israel was baptized unto Moses, in the cloud and in the 
sea, by the cloud pouring out water. (1 Cor. x. 1, 2; Ps. 
lxxvii. 17-20.) These two examples of the use of blood 
and water were doubtless models, or patterns, for all coming 
time, as a part of the ritual of the Church. In proof of 
this (Heb. iii. 5, 6): "And Moses verily w r as faithful in 
all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things 
which were to be spoken after ; but Christ as a son over 
his own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the con- 
fidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." Mo- 
ses, then, was a type of Jesus Christ in several important 
features of his peculiar character. 

(7) "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the 
men which were upon the face of the earth." (Num. xii. 
3.) The Lord said of him (Num. xii. 7, 8) : "My servant 
Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With 
him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and 
not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall 
he behold." Meekness, then, was one of the peculiar feat- 
ures of the character of Moses. The word meek means 
mild, soft, gentle. This was like our blessed Lord Jesus 
Christ in humanity. The meekness of the blessed Jesus 
excelled that of Moses. Moses at one time spoke unad- 
visedly; but it cannot be said of Jesus. Moses in this 
feature of character was a type, a show, a dim outline of 
the blessed Jesus. It were well if all who claim to be 
Christians were possessed of this peculiarly important feat- 
ure of character. The Mosaic or Levitical order of priest- 
hood was a type of the humanity of Jesus Christ; and the 
humanity character of priesthood in Jesus Christ was an 
essentiality to the salvation of sinners, for the reason that 
there could have been no atoning sacrifice in the person of 
Jesus Christ without his human nature. Then it was im- 
portant that the Mosaic type of priesthood should exist as 



76 Lessons for Youth. 

a type of the true character of this feature of priesthood 
in the person of Jesus Christ. The ignoring of this fact 
of the character of the Mosaic or Levitical order of priest- 
hood has led to no little error upon other subjects of essen- 
tial importance and consequent bearing upon the Christian 
system. 

(8) One other feature of likeness. The Lord said of 
Moses: "With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even ap- 
parently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of 
the Lord shall he behold." (Num. xii. 7, 8.) In this re- 
spect Moses was a type of the man Jesus Christ, who in 
his person was God manifest in the flesh. 

2. The Melchisedek order of priesthood was a type of 
the divinity of Jesus Christ. "Melchisedek," as a type of 
the divinity of Jesus Christ, was "King of Salem, Priest 
of the Most High God ; King of righteousness ; King of 
peace; without father, without mother, without descent, 
having neither beginning of days nor end of life; but 
made like unto the Son of God ; abideth a priest contin- 
ually." (Heb. vii. 1-3.) "Whose descent is not counted." 
(Heb. vii. 6.) 

(1) Salem is said to have been the ancient name of Je- 
rusalem. This being true, then Melchisedek was King of 
Jerusalem under the ancient name of Salem. Jerusalem, 
literally, was typical of the spiritual Jerusalem in several 
respects which we need not trace now. Jesus Christ in his 
divinity character was and is King of the spiritual Jeru- 
salem. 

(2) Melchisedek is spoken of as " without father, without 
mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days 
nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God ; abideth 
a priest continually;" " whose descent (or pedigree) is not 
counted." That is, his genealogy, or lineage of descent, is 
not a matter of record, so as to show who his father or 



Lesions for Youth. 77 

mother was ; nor have we any account of his birth, or be- 
ginning of days; nor of his death, his end of life; but 
that he was priest of the Most High God by special ap- 
pointment. In these respects he was like to Jesus Christ, 
who as to his divinity had neither father nor mother, was 
without beginning of days or end of life, and hath an end- 
less priesthood. This Melchisedek order of priesthood is 
introduced to illustrate this peculiar feature in the priest- 
hood of Jesus Christ. Melchisedek's priesthood was to 
abide upon the same ground that he is said to have neither 
father nor mother — that is, there is no recorded history of 
his birth or death any more than of his ancestry. Then 
this order, or type, of his priesthood was a true type of the 
true abiding priesthood of Jesus Christ. 

(3) Melchisedek was called "King of righteousness, 
King of peace, and Priest of the Most High God." All 
of these may be truthfully applied to Jesus Christ. 

(4) Melchisedek was " made like unto the Son of God." 
This one expression confirms the correctness of this order 
of priesthood as being applicable to the divinity of Jesus 
Christ. 

3. The twofold character of the consecration of Jesus 
Christ is an additional confirmation of the correctness of 
this view of his priesthood. The recorded facts and cir- 
cumstances of his consecration correspond with these two 
orders of priesthood. 

(1) The baptism, or washing, of the person of Jesus by 
John, as a priest, was a consecration of the humanity of 
Jesus Christ under the law. 

(2) Then the miraculous consecration with the Spirit of 
God, the accompanying audible voice, and the visible 
appearance of the descending consecrating element, all 
attest that there and then Jesus Christ received his con- 
secration to his high-priesthood, and entered upon his visi- 
ble mission as such. 



78 Lessons for Youth. 

(3) Jesus Christ in his humanity character of priest- 
hood was to be in due time the true sacrifice for the sins of 
the world by the sufferings of death — for he was both God 
and man. He was God manifest in the flesh. He was 
" made of woman, made under the law, to redeem them that 
were under the law, that we might receive the adoption 
of sons." (Gal. iv. 4, 5.) " For what the law could not 
do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his 
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, con- 
demned sin in the flesh ; that the righteousness of the law 
might be fulfilled in us." (Rom. viii. 3, 4.) These expres- 
sions furnish a reason why the higher order of priesthood 
should be brought in, which was typically foreshadowed by 
Melchisedek. There was an essential necessity that this 
higher order of priesthood should be brought in, for the 
reason that the Mosaic or Aaronic order of priesthood was 
a type of the humanity of Jesus Christ. This type of priest- 
hood, with its oft-repeated sacrifices, was a substitute for 
the time instead of the true sacrifice in the person of Jesus, 
until the fullness of the time should come when the true sac- 
rifice should be made. Thus we are furnished with a rea- 
son why sacrifices were offered as sin-offerings even from 
Abel, if not by Adam, after the fall, for Jesus is spoken 
of as a "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." 
(Rev. xiii. 8.) 

4. Moses was the true representative, or typical char- 
acter, who, under the divine direction, inaugurated the 
Aaronic or Levitical order of priesthood — which was 
called Aaronic because Aaron and his sons were high- 
priests, and was called Levitical because the tribe of Levi 
was set apart to the priesthood, though an under order to 
that of Aaron and his sons. The bringing in of the higher 
order of priesthood did not abrogate the necessity of the 
washing, or baptism, of the humanity of Jesus by John 



Lessons for Youth. 79 

under the law. But the baptism of John could, and did, 
introduce the humanity of Jesus to that place or point 
under the law where it was proper that at the end of the 
weakness of the law, and the weakness of that type of 
priesthood, the Son of God, in his divinity of char- 
acter—the higher order of priesthood — should be con- 
nected with the lower, or weaker, order of priesthood, and 
that both these types of priesthood should concentrate in 
the person of Jesus Christ ; thus combining humanity's 
weakness with divinity's power. And thus Jesus Christ, 
in his twofold nature, represents man in his dependence ; 
and being divine, he brings strength, and makes salvation 
possible through himself. Consider the necessity for a 
concentration of divine strength, wisdom, and compassion, 
to be connected with that order of priesthood which was 
a type of humanity's weakness, and you cannot fail to see 
that the only hope of man rested in the efficiency of this 
higher order of priesthood, which was the perfection of 
that which was foreshadowed in the two orders, which, in 
their twofold characters, were true types of the true 
priesthood of Jesus Christ. Hence it is said of Jesus: 
" Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the 
oil of gladness above thy fellows." (Heb. i. 9.) "God 
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with 
power." (Acts x. 38.) "After the baptism which John 
preached." (Verse 37.) 



LESSON XXII. 

The Changed Priesthood Necessitates a Change 
in the I«aw. 

We note some of the changes of the law which of ne- 
cessity were brought in upon the inauguration, or con- 
secration, of the higher order of priesthood. "For the 
priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a 



80 Lessons for Youth. 

change also of the law." (Heb. vii. 12.) In this language 
we are furnished with a reason why several things in the 
shape of changes in the ritual of the then existing Church 
were brought in as of necessity. 

1. In regard to the priesthood. Jesus was born of the 
tribe of Judah, and not of the tribe of Levi, as the law 
demanded ; but in fulfillment of prophecy which had fore- 
told that he should be born of the tribe of Judah. " The 
scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from 
between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall 
the gathering of the people be." (Gen. xlix. 10.) 

2. There was a change in the manner of induction into 
the high-priesthood in some particulars, for after the 
washing with water at or in the door of the tabernacle, 
under the law, the holy oil was poured upon the head of 
him who was to be consecrated a high-priest. (Lev. viii. 
12.) But Jesus was anointed with the Holy Ghost. (Matt, 
iii. 16; Acts x. 38.) 

3. The law demanded the applicant, or subject, to be 
washed with water at or in the door of the tabernacle of 
the congregation ; but Jesus was baptized — washed with 
water — by John, at or in Jordan. In regard to this change 
we offer the following reasons, viz. : John had said of him- 
self and of Jesus, "I must decrease, but he shall increase;" 
as if he had said, " My ministry, with my baptism, and my 
order of priesthood, shall all be exceeded by the superior 
ministry, baptism, and priesthood of Jesus Christ." In other 
words, Jesus Christ was to be a priest out of or above his or- 
der of priesthood, and therefore it was appropriate that he 
should receive a consecration according to his higher order 
of priesthood. And as the world's Redeemer and great 
High-priest, it was appropriate that John should take of 
the running waters of the river Jordan with which to bap- 
tize or wash Jesus, as an emblematical purification under 



Lessons for Youth. 81 

the law, as the consecrating element of his humanity to 
the priesthood, which, according to the law, was doubtless 
done by sprinkling or pouring the water upon Jesus by 
John. (Ex. xxix. 4; Num. viii. 7.) 

4. The law demanded that the sacrifices should be slain 
at the door of the tabernacle; but Jesus, the true sacrifice, 
suffered without the gate. (Heb. xiii. 11, 12.) This was 
doubtless to show that Jesus Christ was the world's Re- 
deemer, and not that of the Jews only, as some of them 
thought. These changes demonstrated that Jesus was the 
end of the law touching the priesthood, and that the Le- 
vitical type of the priesthood was fulfilled and perfected 
in the person of Jesus Christ. 

5. The whole ritual of the Church, of necessity, must be 
changed upon the coming of Jesus Christ, so as to be 
adapted to the fact of his having come — for the obvious 
reason that its ritual, prior to his coming, looked, in its 
types and shadows and sacrifices, to his coming. And 
when he came, of necessity the ritual, or rule of worship, 
was changed accordingly. 

6. John the Baptist — the illustrious forerunner of Jesus, 
whose peculiar mission it was to prepare the minds of his 
many hearers for the personal appearance of Jesus Christ 
— clearly indicated the changes that would follow upon 
his coming. Mark his language in Matthew iii. 11: "I 
indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he 
that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am 
not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you with the Holy 
Ghost, and with fire." The question naturally arises, Why 
should John state definitely, "I indeed baptize you with 
water?" and why should he state as definitely that he 
(Jesus) "shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost?" Does 
he not indirectly assert, by his expressions, that his bap- 
tism with water was a type of the baptism with the Holy 



82 Lessons for Youth. 

Ghost which his illustrious successor, even Jesus Christ, 
was to administer ? Then Jesus Christ will bring in some 
changes when he comes in person, for he was and is the 
one Lawgiver. John was no lawgiver ; he set up no new 
Church ; he never intimated such an idea. He came to 
prepare the minds and faith of the then existing Church 
for the immediate coming of the long promised and long 
expected Messiah, Shiloh — the Redeemer of, and Mediator 
for, the Adamic race — the world's great High-priest. But 
why did John constantly state, " I indeed baptize you with 
water ?". We answer, Water had been used as an element 
of purification in connection with other elements from the 
days of Moses, and in one instance water alone was used as 
baptism, as referred to in 1 Corinthians x. 12. But why 
did not John use the water of purifying as other priests 
had done ? We think there is a manifest reason why John 
used water alone. By reference to Numbers xix. you can 
learn how the water of purifying was prepared, what it 
meant, and how it was administered. Let us notice it a 
little. It was made of the ashes of a red heifer, burned with 
cedar-wood and hyssop and scarlet wool ; and these were 
mixed with running water, and this compound of elements 
thus prepared was "sprinkled upon the unclean as a puri- 
fication for sin." (Verse 9.) And when a Levite was to 
be consecrated as a priest, it was called "cleanse them." 
"And thus shalt thou do unto them to cleanse them, 
sprinkle water of purifying upon them." (Num. viii. 6,7.) 
It was used " for a water of separation ; it is a purification 
for sin." (Num. xix. 9.) When Moses would dedicate the 
first testament — the law — he would sprinkle with blood 
both the book and the people, and called it the blood of 
the covenant. See Exodus xxiv. 6-8. This is referred to 
in Hebrews ix. 18-20: "Whereupon neither the first tes- 
tament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had 



Lessons for Youth. 83 

spoken every precept to all the people according to the 
law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, 
and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book 
and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testa- 
ment which God hath enjoined unto you." Again, the 
water is referred to as typical of the blood of Jesus Christ, 
in Hebrews ix. 11-14: "But Christ being come a high- 
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more per- 
fect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of 
this building ; neither by the blood of goats and calves, 
but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy 
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if 
the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer 
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the 
flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who 
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to 
God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the 
living God ? " In this compound of the water of purify- 
ing — which, being sprinkled upon the unclean (typically), 
sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, and which was 
typical of the blood of Jesus Christ — the water was a type 
of the Spirit, and the blood was a type of the blood of 
Jesus. These were administered by the priests by sprink- 
ling or pouring out as to the mode of application to the 
subject to be cleansed, or purified. John's peculiar mis- 
sion was to introduce, point out, and consecrate the person 
of Jesus Christ as to his humanity, and water alone was 
appropriate to his mission ; for a priest must be washed, 
cleansed w T ith water, as preparatory to the higher anoint- 
ing. Water was a type of the Spirit, and Jesus Christ was 
to baptize with the Spirit. It was therefore appropriate 
that John should use that element in his baptism, which 
was a true type of the baptism of the Holy Ghost — which 



84 Lessons for Youth. 

was Christ's baptism. This baptism with water alone was 
not a new law, nor was it an innovation upon law; for 
water alone had been used as an element of baptism when 
all Israel were "baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in 
the sea." (1 Cor. x. 2.) And the psalmist defines the 
mode of its application upon that memorable occasion, 
"The clouds poured out water." (Ps. lxxvi. 17.) "But 
the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst 
of the sea." (Ex. xiv. 29.) The Israelites were baptized 
by pouring out water upon them while they walked upon 
dry ground. John's baptism with water was a type of 
spiritual baptism, according to his statements about it 
and Christ's baptism, for he constantly seems to imply the 
one by the other. 

7. John's formula of baptism must of necessity be 
changed after Jesus Christ was visibly manifested as such, 
for the reason that it was never properly applicable to 
another person without virtually denying that Jesus Christ 
had come. His baptism obligated his subjects to believe 
on one yet to come. . Therefore, his formula of baptism 
had filled in its mission when he baptized Jesus. But he 
did not baptize Jesus as he had baptized others, for ob- 
vious reasons : 

(1) It was not appropriate to baptize Jesus unto re- 
pentance, for he had no sin. In him was no guile. He 
was holy, harmless, and undefiled. 

(2) It was not appropriate to obligate Jesus to believe 
on one to come, as the Saviour ; that would have been an 
absurdity. 

(3) It was not appropriate to obligate Jesus to believe 
on himself, for that would have been also an absurdity — 
contrary to reason and truth. 

(4) Into what faith, or to what religion, or for what 
purpose, was Jesus baptized by John, if not for any of the 



Lessons for Youth. 85 

above-named purposes? The answer has been given, in 
part at least, in a previous lesson involving these identical 
questions — in which it was shown that he was baptized to 
fulfill the law contained in ordinances touching the priest- 
hood. 



LESSON XXIII. 

Baptism witli Water a Type of Spiritual Baptism. 

Baptism with water was, and is, a type of spiritual 
baptism in two respects, viz.: (1) As to the properties of 
the element used; (2) as to the mode of its application. 

1. Water, as to its properties as a type of the Spirit, 
possesses a cleansing property, when applied to the human 
body, for which there has not been found any substi- 
tute of equal value. This is true of the Spirit in refer- 
ence to the soul of man ; there is no other power that can 
reach and cleanse the hearts of men, and renew the moral 
nature. 

2. Water satisfies the thirsts of the body better than any 
other known element. This is true of the Spirit in refer- 
ence to the thirsts of the soul — superior to any other ele- 
ment or power. 

3. Water is an actual essentiality to the perpetuation of 
human life. So is the Spirit to a spiritual life of peace, 
happiness, and friendship with God. 

4. Water possesses fruitfulness, so that without it there 
would be no germination of seed, no harvest upon earth. 
So of the Spirit, of spiritual things, and spiritual develop- 
ments. 

5. As of w&ter in its abundance and existence wher- 
ever man lives, and its adaptation to his wants, so of the 
Spirit in its abundance and adaptation to man's wants. 
Those whom it does not comfort it reproves. 



86 Lessons for Youth. 

6. Water is free; only in a few instances has it ever 
been sold for a price. So the Spirit is free — without money 
and without price. 

7. Water possesses a power difficult to define or limit. 
So of the Spirit — it is indefinable, unlimited, omnipotent, 
in power. 

Water, then, as an element, possesses some beautiful and 
important properties as an appropriate type of the Spirit, 
and was therefore an appropriate element for John's bap- 
tism. 



LESSON XXIV. 

Some of tlie JPropliecies Respecting: Jesus Christ. 

As another link to our chain of thought, let us notice 
some of the prophecies respecting Jesus Christ. 

What Jesus says of himself: "That all things must be 
fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in 
the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me." (Luke 
xxiv. 44.) For example, prophecy had foretold of Jesus 
that "not a bone of him should be broken," so they broke 
not his legs. It had foretold the "dividing his raiment," 
the "casting of lots for his vesture," the "money for which 
he was sold," the "vinegar given to him," the "traitorism 
of Judas," etc. These, we might say, looked like matters 
of minor importance ; yet they, with others, were fulfilled. 
I know of no prediction made of him which was not ful- 
filled. We have been speaking of the baptism of the 
person of Jesus Christ by John, and of the baptism of the 
Holy Ghost, which was Christ's baptism. These were 
subjects of prophecy also; and are not these subjects of 
importance, especially that of spiritual baptism? And 
should we not expect their exact fulfillment, since little 
things were so precisely fulfilled to the last jot and tittle? 



Lessons for Youth. 87 

Let the prophecies speak for themselves — of water as a 
type of the Spirit, and of spiritual baptism also. Isaiah 
xii. 3: "With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of 
salvation. " Isaiah xliv. 3 : " For I will pour water upon 
him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground ; I will 
pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine 
offspring/' Isaiah lii. 15: "So shall he sprinkle many 
nations." Ezekiel xxxvi. 25-27: "Then will I sprinkle 
clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all 
your filthiness, and from your idols, will I cleanse you. A 
new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put 
within you ; and I will take away the stony heart out of 
your flesh. . . . And I will put my Spirit within you, 
and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep 
my judgments and do them." Isaiah lv. 1 : "Ho, every one 
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no 
money ; come ye, buy, and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and 
milk without money and without price." Isaiah lviii. 11 : 
"And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy 
thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones ; and thou 
shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, 
whose waters fail not." Isaiah xxvii. 3 : " I the Lord do 
keep it ; I will water it every moment ; lest any hurt it, I 
will keep it night and day." Isaiah xxxii. 15: "Until the 
Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness 
be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a 
forest." Proverbs i. 23: "Turn you at my reproof ; behold, 
I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my 
words unto you." Joel ii. 28, 29: "And it shall come to 
pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all 
flesh ; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 
your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall 
see visions; and also upon the servants and upon the 
handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit." Eze- 



88 Lessons for Youth. 

kiel xlvii. 1-5 : "Afterward he brought me again unto the 
door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from 
under the threshold of the house eastward; for the fore- 
front of the house stood toward the east, and the waters 
came down from under, from the right side of the house, at 
the south side of the altar. . . . And, behold, there ran 
out waters on the right side. And when the man that had 
the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a 
thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; 
the waters were to the ankles. Again he measured a thou- 
sand, and brought me through the waters ; the w T aters were 
to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought 
me through ; the waters were to the loins. Afterward he 
measured a thousand ; and it was a river that I could not 
pass over ; for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a 
river that could not be passed over." 

These are a few of the prophecies recorded in the Old 
Testament upon the subject of the water and the Spirit, 
and of water as a type of the Spirit. They speak for them- 
selves ; they need no comment. They speak of the water 
and the Spirit as synonymous terms. 



LESSON XXV. 

U*ew Testament Testimony upon the Use of Water 
as a Type of the Spirit. 

We propose to show by New Testament authority that 
water is spoken of as a type of the Spirit. If we can show 
this, then there is no contradiction between the prophecies 
and the New Testament. 

1. What Jesus says of water and the Spirit, in John iv. 
10-14 : "Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest 
the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me 
to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would 



Lessons for Youth. 89 

have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, 
Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep ; 
from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou 
greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and 
drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of 
this water, shall thirst again ; but whosoever drinketh of 
the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the 
water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water 
springing up into everlasting life." Again, in John vii. 
37-39 : " In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus 
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come 
unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the 
Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of 
living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they 
that believe on him should receive; for the Holy Ghost 
was not yet given ; because that Jesus was not yet glori- 
fied)." These expressions by Jesus Christ — the one Law- 
giver — accord perfectly with the prophets in speaking of 
water as a type of the Spirit, and thereby assert their cor- 
rectness in their descriptions of him and his baptism. 
Hear what is said by another prophet, and mark how his 
language accords with the words of Jesus: "They have 
forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters." (Jer. 
xvii. 13.) 

2. Some other expressions in the New Testament about 
water and the Spirit. Kevelation xxi. 6: "I will give 
unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of 
life freely." Revelation xxii. 17: "And the Spirit and 
the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. 
And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, 
let him take the water of life freely." Revelation xxii. 
1, 2: "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, 
clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and 
7 



90 Lessons for Youth. 

of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on 
either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which 
bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every 
month ; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of 
the nations." That these expressions are intended to illus- 
trate abundant spiritual blessings by the types or symbols 
of water — clean w r ater, water of life, living waters, well of 
water, and rivers of water — cannot be questioned. Then 
the prophets and Jesus Christ and Revelation all agree 
in the typical use of water, as a type or symbol of the 
Spirit. Then water was an appropriate element for John's 
purposes (when he baptized the person of Jesus), as a type 
of the Spirit, and as a type of Christ's baptism of the Holy 
Ghost. 

3. John's testimony upon the water as a type of the 
Spirit: "And I knew him not; but he that sent me to 
baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom 
thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on 
him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. 
And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God." 
(John i. 33, 34.) John the Baptist, then, used the water in 
his baptism as a type of spiritual baptism (Christ's baptism) 
in the identical sense that prophecy and the law and Jesus 
Christ made use of that word ; for John never contradicted 
either of these in his ministry or baptism. Jesus Christ 
insisted upon the fulfillment of the law and the prophets 
in regard to himself. " Thus it becometh us to fulfill all 
righteousness." (Matt. iii. 15.) 



LESSON XXVI. 

The Water and the Blood. 

"This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus 
Christ ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And 



Lessons for Youth. 91 

it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is 
truth." (1 John v. 6.) We have seen in the foregoing 
that the water was a type of the Spirit, and how it was 
used as a typical purifying and consecrating element, 
under the law, and in prophecy, and in the language of 
Jesus Christ, and in Revelation. And this verse asserts 
that the " Spirit beareth witness." When John baptized 
Jesus, the Spirit witnessed — with, by, or through the water 
as its type upon that memorable occasion — that Jesus was 
the Son of God. We have seen also that under the law 
and in prophecy the water, as a type of the Spirit, was 
sprinkled or poured upon that which was to be typically 
cleansed, purified, or consecrated. And we have seen that 
Jesus Christ insisted "that all things written in the law 
and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning himself 
must be fulfilled." In this connection, in addition to what 
has been said, let us notice some recorded examples of 
the use that was made of the blood, since it is said that 
Jesus Christ came by water and blood. 

1. The first recorded example of sacrifice is that of Abel, 
in Genesis iv. 4, and is spoken of in Hebrews xi. 4. From 
what is said of it, we infer that it was a model sacrifice, 
one intended to be as a pattern to be followed. We are 
informed that God had respect unto it. The inference is 
that it was in exact accordance with his will. "By faith," 
through this sacrifice, "Abel obtained witness that he was 
righteous, God testifying of his gifts." The fair inference 
from what is stated of it is that Abel's sacrifice was a 
lamb slain and offered as a symbol or type of Jesus Christ, 
who is spoken of as a " Lamb slain from the foundation of 
the world" (Rev. xiii. 8); who was called "the Lamb of 
God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John i. 
29). Of the atoning sacrifice, which was a type of Jesus 
Christ, it is said, " It is the blood that maketh an atonement 



92 Lessons for Youth. 

for the soul." (Lev. xvii. 11.) "And without shedding of 
blood is no remission." (Heb. ix. 22.) It appears from 
the expressions made of the blood that the blood was the 
atoning part of the sacrifice. Let us therefore notice 
what was done with the blood of the sacrifice which typ- 
ically represented Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. We 
are not informed directly as to what use Abel made of the 
blood of his sacrifice, but we are indirectly informed, in 
Hebrews xii. 24, that it was sprinkled, viz. : "And to Jesus, 
the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of 
sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." 
We regard this as having a reference to the blood of Abel's 
sacrifice as a type of the blood of Jesus Christ. We are 
certainly sustained in this conclusion by the expression 
(1 Peter i. 2) : " Elect according to the foreknowledge of 
God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto 
obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ;" 
and then in Hebrews x. 22 : " Let us draw near with a true 
heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled 
from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure 
water." If, then, the blood of Abel's sacrifice was a type 
of the blood of Jesus Christ, it amounts to a certainty that 
it was sprinkled. 

2. The second example of the use of blood that we no- 
tice is that of Moses. " It is the Lord's passover." (Ex. xii. 
11.) "It was a lamb without blemish, a male of the first 
year" (verse 5), "a bone of which was not to be broken" 
(verse 46). Of the blood it is said, "And ye shall take a 
bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the 
basin, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts with the 
blood that is in the basin." (Verse 22.) And this is called 
the " sprinkling of blood." (Heb. xi. 28.) " It is the sacri- 
fice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of 
the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyp- 



Lessons for Youth. 93 

tians and delivered our houses." (Ex. xii. 27.) That this 
sacrifice was typical of the sacrifice of the true "Lamb of 
God," in the person of Jesus Christ, is more than intimated 
by various expressions in the Scriptures, one of which is 
1 Corinthians v. 7, 8 : " For even Christ our Passover is 
sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast." 

May we not learn some lessons to profit from this re- 
corded example of sacrifice and sprinkling of blood, with 
its solemnities and restrictions? Let us notice some of 
them. 

1. "None of you shall go out at the door of his house 
until the morning." (Ex. xii. 22.) As if it had been said 
if an Israelite had ventured abroad in the perilous night, the 
angel was not bound to spare him. So now there are re- 
strictions laid upon every true Israelite ; they must keep 
within the limits of the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus 
Christ, or they may be destroyed. 

2. In vain had Israel killed the lamb, if they had not 
also sprinkled its blood with the hyssop upon the door-posts. 
So Christ to us is dead in vain, unless applied by faith unto 
the conscience. 

3. The blood was not sprinkled behind the door. So we 
are not to be ashamed of Christ. (Mark viii. 38.) But we 
are to confess Christ. (Matt. x. 32.) 

4. The blood was not sprinkled upon the threshold, or 
door-sill. So the blood of Christ, Hebrews x. 28, 29 : " He 
that despised Moses's law died without mercy under two or 
three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose 
ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under 
foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the 
covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, 
and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" 

These two examples of the use that was made of the 
blood of the sacrifices, which were typical of the blood of 



94 Lessons for Youth. 

Jesus Christ, we regard as sufficient. They do assert that 
the blood was sprinkled as the mode of application. The 
law and the prophets and the New Testament expressions 
accord upon this subject. 



LESSON XXVII. 

The t,aw Kulnlled in tlie Actual Sprinkling: of the 
Blood of Jesus Christ. 

Let us notice the exact fulfillment of the law and the 
prophecies in the actual sprinkling of the blood of Jesus 
Christ. 

1. As preparatory to the actual personal shedding of the 
blood of our blessed Saviour, just a little before he was 
betrayed by Judas and arrested by his accusers, he said to 
his twelve apostles, "With desire I have desired to eat this 
passover with you before I suffer." (Luke xxii. 15.) On 
that occasion he changed the passover, in its formula of 
sacrifice, into what is now known as or termed our Lord's 
Supper, or the Sacrament. See verses 19, 20 : "And he 
took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto 
them, saying, This is my body which is given for you ; this 
do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after 
supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, 
which is shed for you." See also 1 Corinthians xi. 23-27. 
For more of the particulars upon this subject the reader is 
referred to the Lesson on " Christ our Passover." By this 
typical sacrament the symbol of the blood of the Lord 
Jesus is perpetuated in and by the Church now, commem- 
orating his death and the shedding of his blood by a type 
which was designated by himself — the fruit of the vine, 
which is red, and looks like blood. 

2. Notice his agony in the garden. Luke xxii. 44 : "And 
being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his 



Lessons for Youth. 95 

sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to 
the ground." Again, let us carefully read Hebrew's v. 1-4: 
" For every high-priest taken from among men is ordained 
for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both 
gifts and sacrifices for sins; who can have compassion on 
the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for 
that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. And by 
reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for him- 
self, to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honor unto 
himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron." 
These verses are descriptive of the typical priesthood of 
the Aaronic or Mosaic type or order, and assert that they 
had to offer sacrifices for themselves also, as well as for the 
people. They also assert that "no man taketh this honor 
to himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron." 
This feature of that type of priesthood showed their imper- 
fection — that is, their weakness — hence the necessity of 
bringing in the higher, or Melchisedek, order or type of 
priesthood in the person of Jesus Christ. The Aaronic 
type was called of God to this office, as w T ell as that the 
Melchisedek type was by special appointment, and both 
these types must meet in the person of Jesus Christ. Now r 
let us read, as descriptive of the priesthood of Jesus Christ, 
Hebrews v. 5-10: "So also Christ glorified not himself to 
be made a high-priest ; but he that said unto him, Thou 
art my son, to-day have I begotten thee. As he saith also 
in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order 
of Melchisedek. Who in the days of his flesh, when he 
had offered up prayers and supplications with strong cry- 
ing and tears unto him that was able to save him from 
death, and was heard in that he feared ; though he were a 
son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suf- 
fered ; and being made perfect, he became the author of 
eternal salvation unto all them that obey him ; called o^ 



96 Lessons for Youth. 

God a high-priest after the order of Melchisedek." There 
is an outline of the agony in the garden in these words: 
" Offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying 
and tears." Then it was that he "sweat as it were great 
drops of blood falling down to the ground." It is remark- 
able how precisely this agony in the garden — his prayers 
and intercession, his bloody sweat — was a fulfillment of 
prophecy. " He hath poured out his soul unto death ; and 
he was numbered with the transgressors ; and he bare the 
sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." 
(Isa. liii. 12.) See the fulfillment, Luke xxiii. 32, 34, 36: 
"And there were also two others, malefactors, led with him 
to be put to death." " Then said Jesus, Father, forgive 
them; for they know not what they do. And they parted 
his raiment, and cast lots." "And the soldiers also mocked 
him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar." It is stated 
in John xix. 33, 34: "But when they came to Jesus, and 
saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs ; 
but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and 
forthwith came there out blood and water." See verses 
36, 37: "For these things were done, that the Scripture 
should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. 
And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on 
him whom they pierced." The blood of Jesus Christ was 
sprinkled upon the ground, when he "sweat as it were great 
drops of blood falling down upon the ground." The blood 
of Jesus Christ may be said to have been poured out when 
his side was pierced by the soldier's spear, when " forthwith 
came there out blood and water." May these not be re- 
garded as a literal fulfillment of the law and the prophets, 
when under the law a part of the blood was poured out 
at the foot of the altar, while some of the blood was 
sprinkled upon that which was to be atoned for, or rather 
upon those whose sins were to be atoned for? 



Lessons for Youth. 97 

LESSON XXVIII. 

Examples of Spiritual Baptism. 

Let us see if they accord with prophecy. 

1. The first recorded example of spiritual baptism that 
we notice is that which succeeded the baptism with water 
by John, on the person of Jesus. Upon this memorable 
occasion, immediately after John had baptized Jesus with 
water, u the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the 
Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon 
him ; and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my be- 
loved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matt. iii. 16, 17.) 
Prophecy had asserted (Isaiah xi. 2): "And the Spirit of 
the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and 
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit 
of knowledge and the fear of the Lord." Again (Isaiah lxi. 
1, 2): "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because 
the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the 
meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to 
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the 
prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable 
year of the Lord." This prophecy is quoted by Jesus 
Christ in Luke iv. 18, 19, and he applies it to himself, so as 
to give us to understand that it was fulfilled in and upon 
him, and thereby virtually asserts that he was anointed to 
his office when the Spirit descended upon him in connection 
with the baptism of water by John. This is stated, so as 
to be unmistakable in its meaning, in Acts x. 37, 38: 
"That word, I say, ye know, which was published through- 
out all Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism 
which John preached ; how God anointed Jesus of Naza- 
reth with the Holy Ghost and with power." That anoint- 
ing element was poured out, fell upon, was shed forth, as 
to the manner or mode of application. It descended from 



98 Lessons for Youth. 

heaven. This was in accordance with the law and the 
prophecies. 

2. The second recorded example of spiritual baptism 
we notice is that recorded in Acts as an introduction to the 
occurrence. Mark the words of Jesus, as a prophecy, just 
before his ascension (Acts i. 4, 5) : "And, being assem- 
bled together with them, commanded them that they should 
not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the 
Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John 
truly baptized with water ; but ye shall be baptized with 
the Holy Ghost not many days hence." Mark the fulfill- 
ment, as recorded in Acts ii. 1-4: "And when the day of 
Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in 
one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven 
as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house 
where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them 
cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 
And they were all filled with -the Holy Ghost, and began 
to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them ut- 
terance." Verses 16-18: "But this is that which* was 
spoken by the prophet Joel ; and it shall come to pass in 
the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon 
all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 
and your young men shall see visions, and your old men 
shall dream dreams ; and on my servants and on my hand- 
maidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and 
they shall prophesy." This was Christ's baptism of the 
Holy Spirit, in fulfillment of the prophecies, and of Christ's 
promise and prophecy. Upon that memorable day (verse 
41), "then they that gladly received his word were bap- 
tized ; and the same day there were added unto them about 
three thousand souls." Water being a type of the Spirit 
in baptism, was poured or sprinkled upon those who were 
baptized ; for that which was symbolized by water baptism 



Lessons for Youth. 99 

in John's baptism was poured out, shed upon them. It 
came from heaven. As this was a fulfillment of the 
prophecies made of Christ's baptism, and a fulfillment of 
the words of Jesus Christ upon the same subject, and a. ful- 
fillment of what John had asserted would follow his bap- 
tism with water, and the first (and therefore a model bap- 
tism for all time to come) after the ascension of Jesus 
Christ, let us mark some expressions made of it : 

(1) Jesus Christ calls it baptism, Acts i. 5. 

(2) Peter quotes Joel ii. 28, 29, in Acts ii. 16-18, and 
says, "Pour out my Spirit." Luke says (verse 3), "It sat 
upon each of them." It came from heaven. 

(3) Isa. xliv. 3: "I will pour water. . . I will pour my 
Spirit." 

(4) Isa. lii. 15: "So shall he (Christ) sprinkle many na- 
tions." 

(5) Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 27: "I will sprinkle clean water 
upon you I will put my Spirit within you." 

3. The third recorded example of spiritual baptism is 
that which occurred upon the preaching of Peter to the 
Gentiles at the house of Cornelius. Acts x. 44-48: "While 
Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them 
which heard the word. And they of the circumcision 
which believed were astonished, as many as came with Pe- 
ter, because that on the Gentiles was also poured out the 
gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with 
tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can 
any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, 
which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And 
he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the 
Lord." Hear what Peter says again, in speaking of this 
occurrence (Acts xi. 15, 16): "And as I began to speak, 
the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. 
Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he 



100 Lessons for Youth. 

said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be 
baptized with the Holy Ghost." It is worthy of note that 
Peter should repeat, in this connection, the prophecy made 
by Jesus Christ about John's baptizing with water, and in 
this connection speak of the baptism with the Holy Ghost. 
Its repetition and application, as made by Peter, shows 
that he understood Jesus as teaching that John's baptism 
with water symbolized, or was a type of, the baptism of the 
Holy Ghost. If so, it was poured out, fell on them. It 
was affusion ; for the antitype, that of which the water was 
a type in the hands of John, was poured out, fell upon 
them, in exact fulfillment of the prophecies recorded in the 
Old Testament, and repeated in the New Testament; and 
according to what Peter says in Acts xi. 15, 16, he (Jesus) 
defines the mode of baptism in the hands of John to have 
been that of pouring out — fell upon those whom he (John) 
baptized, as a type of the baptism of the Holy Ghost. 



UESSON XXIX. 

A Brief Review. 

1. John was a priest, and as a priest baptized Jesus. 
Lesson XIX. 

2. Jesus was baptized under the Mosaic law of ordi- 
nances touching the priesthood. Lesson XX. 

3. The twofold character of the priesthood of Jesus 
Christ, and his twofold character of consecration. Lesson 
XXI. 

4. Changes of the law, under the change of priesthood, 
was a necessity. Lesson XXII. 

5. Water was, and is, a type of the Spirit in two respects. 
Lesson XXIII. 



Lessons for Youth. 101 

6. Some prophecies respecting Jesus Christ. Lesson 
XXIV. 

7. New Testament testimony upon the use of water as 
a type of the Spirit. Lesson XXV. 

8. The water and the blood. Lesson XXVI. 

9. The fulfillment of prophecy in the sprinkling of the 
blood of Jesus Christ. Lesson XXVII. 

10. Recorded examples of spiritual baptism. Lesson 
XXVIII. 

A few thoughts on each of these lessons : 

(1) If John was a priest, and as a priest baptized Jesus, 
then the act of baptism, as administered to the person of 
Jesus by John, was an official act, and, as far as the water 
was concerned as an element, it must have been in accord- 
ance with the law as to the mode of administration. 

(2) If Jesus was baptized by John under the Mosaic 
law of ordinances touching the priesthood, then the water 
was poured or sprinkled upon Jesus in accordance with 
that law; and that official act of consecration by John, 
under the law, was the legal basis of the authority of Jesus 
in the temple as a priest under the law, or else Jesus had 
no legal authority in or over the temple under the law. 

(3) This shows that both the types of priesthood cen- 
tered, or were fulfilled, in the person of Jesus Christ, and 
he was consecrated accordingly. 

(4) In reference to the change of the law touching the 
priesthood of Jesus Christ, it was in part the fulfillment of 
prophecy as to the tribe of which he was born, viz., of the 
tribe of Judah, instead of that of Levi; and in reference 
to his higher anointing of the Holy Ghost, instead of the 
pouring on of the holy oil. Other changes of Church 
ritual, or law, followed as a necessity also, some of which 
were noticed in another place. 

(5) Water, as a type of the Spirit, was, according to the 



102 Lessons for Youth. 

law and in fulfillment of prophecy, both sprinkled and 
poured as to the mode of administration. 

(6) The prophets spoke of Christ's spiritual baptism as 
poured out, sprinkled upon, as to the mode of administra- 
tion. 

(7) This embodies the joint testimony of John and Jesus 
as to the use of water as a type of the Spirit, and as the 
Spirit was poured out or upon, or sprinkled, so the water 
was used as a type of the Spirit. 

(8) The water and the blood, under the law and in the 
fulfillment of prophecy, were both poured out or upon and 
sprinkled, as to the mode of administration. 

(9) The blood of Jesus was literally poured out, sprink- 
led, in exact fulfillment of prophecy. "He poured out 
his life unto death." " He poured out his soul." 

(10) There are three recorded examples of spiritual 
baptism in the New Testament, in all of which the Spirit 
was poured out, fell upon, was shed forth, in exact fulfill- 
ment of the types in the law and in fulfillment of proph- 
ecy. "So shall he sprinkle many nations." 



UESSON XXX. 

The Three Witnesses Agree. 

"And there are three that bear witness in earth, the 
Spirit, and the water, and the blood ; and these three agree 
in one." (1 John v. 8.) These three elements, or separate 
existences, are said to "bear witness in the earth," "and 
these three agree in one." There is some important sense 
in which these expressions are intended to be understood; 
and there is some important subject upon which they are 
said to bear witness, and upon which they agree in one. 

1. In all important questions which are to be decided by, 



Lessons for Youth. 103 

or from, the testimony of witnesses, the character or com- 
petency of the witnesses is of the first importance. 

2. The exact agreement of a number of witnesses im- 
parts the highest degree of credibility to their testimony, 
and is important to the exclusion of all doubt. 

As an illustration : 

(1) The mission of mediation between God and men by 
Jesus Christ was of such essential importance that it is 
said (Acts x. 43), " To him give all the prophets witness, 
that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall 
receive remission of sins." The references to this expres- 
sion, traced out, will give something from all the prophets 
upon this subject, and they all agree. 

(2) The resurrection of Jesus Christ was of such essen- 
tial importance that it is stated (Acts x. 40, 41), "Him 
God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; not 
to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, 
even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose 
from the dead." And they all agree upon this subject. 

3. "The law was our school-master to bring us unto 
Christ, that we might be justified by faith." (Gal. iii. 24.) 
"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every 
one that believeth." (Rom. x. 4.) "For the law having 
a shadow of good things to come." (Heb. x. 1.) The end 
or design of the law of types, shadows, and sacrifices was 
to bring us to Christ, and to introduce Christ as the true 
substance or reality of what those shadows meant, and 
was intended typically to represent as a shadow repre- 
sents or implies a real body or thing; therefore, where the 
law ends, with its types and shadows, Christ begins, or is 
introduced in reality of sacrifice in person. These types 
and shadows were made use of as witnesses that the true 
sacrifice would be made in due time, and they all agree in 
their testimony as witnesses upon this subject. 



104 Lessons for Youth. 

4. In the law, and in prophecy, the water and the blood 
were both poured out and sprinkled upon that which was 
typically purified, or atoned for, or consecrated, so that 
these two elements agree in the one mode of administration 
under the law and in prophecy. 

5. The water and the Spirit are inseparably connected 
in the prophecies, and in the words of John and Jesus, and 
in the New Testament examples of spiritual baptism, as 
having been poured out, sprinkled upon, shed forth, etc., 
as to the one mode of administration, as has been shown in 
previous lessons. 

6. The Spirit, and the water, and the blood, agree as 
witnesses in one mode of administration. 

7. Then pure water, clean water, running w r ater, was an 
appropriate type or symbol of the Holy Spirit, and was 
according to the law and the prophecies, and John's and 
Jesus Christ's words, and the examples of spiritual bap- 
tism, and the baptism of the Israelites unto Moses. It 
was administered by pouring, or affusion, by John and 
his ancestors, and his successors, the apostles, after the 
ascension of Jesus Christ. 

8. Therefore any other mode of administration would be 
to make the water bear a different and contradictory wit- 
ness to that of the joint testimony of the Spirit and the 
blood, and thereby become a false witness. 



WESSON XXXI. 

Pouring: or Sprinkling; vs. Immersion. 

Is there one example recorded in the New Testament of 
water baptism, as administered by John the Baptist, or by 
any of the apostles, that can be proved to have been done 
in any other mode than by pouring or sprinkling? Or, is 



Lesions for Youth. 105 

there one example recorded in the New Testament of water 

baptism, as administered by John the Baptist, or by any 

of the apostles, that can be proved to have been done by 

immersion? 

EXAMPLE I. 

If one snch example is recorded in the New Testament 
of actual immersion as a baptism, then it ought to be sus- 
ceptible of proof positive, i. e., to a certainty. Proof 
amounting to a certainty is called a demonstration. We 
have proved to a certainty that the Spirit, and the water, 
and the blood, agree in one mode of administration, and 
that mode is pouring or sprinkling. If one example of 
immersion as a baptism performed by John, or by the 
apostles, can be proved to a certainty, then that one exam- 
ple would be a contradiction of the joint testimony of the 
Spirit and the blood, and that one example would make a 
contradiction in the testimony of these three witnesses upon 
the one mode of administration. What is proof? 

1. Inference is not proof. Inference may be made the 
basis of an argument. Nor is argument proof. Some in- 
fer immersion to have been performed upon the person of 
Jesus because he is said to have come up from, or out of, 
the water ; but his coming up out of, or from, the water 
was a separate and distinct action from that of his baptism 
by John. Then where is the proof in this case of inferred 
immersion? It is an inference only. We claim to have 
given a reason why it was appropriate for John to take of 
the running waters of the river with which to baptize the 
person of Jesus, because that was in accordance with the 
law of Moses. It may have been that Jesus stood at the 
edge of the water, or even in the water, while John baptized 
his person as an emblematical purification under the law, 
but that John immersed Jesus is not proved by inferring 
it to be so from his coming up from, or out of, the water. 
8 



106 Lessons for Youth. 

2. Assertion is not proof. I have as much right to assert 
that John never immersed the person of Jesus as anyone 
else has to assert that he did immerse the person of Jesus 
as a baptism. The proof is what we are willing to accept 
in this case, and not inference, nor assertion. 

3. Assumption is not proof. To assume is to take for 
granted. Assumption is the act of assuming, or to take 
for granted. You may assume, or take for granted, as 
much as you please, but your assumptions are no part of 
proof to a certainty. 

4. The believing that a certain thing exists, or that a 
certain transaction took place, is no part of proof that the 
thing existed, or that the transaction did take place. You 
or I, or any one else, may verily believe a lie to be the 
truth. As Paul says of himself, "I verily thought with 
myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the 
name of Jesus of Nazareth." (Acts xxvi. 9.) 

5. Some assert that if a man believes a thing to be right, 
then that thing is right to him, because he believes it to be 
right ; and there are not a few people who adopt this as a 
safe assumption. Let us look at it in connection with the 
words of the Scripture. 2 Thessalonians ii. 11, 12: "And for 
this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they 
should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who 
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteous- 
ness." Hence the appropriate admonition of Paul to Tim- 
othy (1 Tim. iv. 16): "Take heed unto thyself, and unto 
the doctrine; continue in them; for in doing this thou 
shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee." 

EXAMPLE II. 

It is said of Philip and the eunuch, in Acts viii. 38, 39 : 
"And they went down both into the water, both Philip and 
the eunuch ; and he baptized him. And when they were 



Lessons for Youth. 107 

come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught 
away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went 
on his way rejoicing." Some infer from what is said that 
Philip did immerse the eunuch ; but their going down into 
the water, or coming up out of the water, was not the act 
of baptism. These actions were performed by both of 
them, and were separate and distinct from the act of bap- 
tism. There is, then, no proof of actual immersion in this 
case. It is only an inference. 

EXAMPLE III. 

The third example is that recorded in Acts xvi. 19-34. 
We quote a part of the record, viz. : Paul and Silas had 
been accused, and beaten, and cast into prison, and the 
jailer charged "to keep them safely; who, having received 
such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made 
their feet fast in the stocks." In this situation in the inner 
prison, which we suppose to have been what we now call 
the dungeon, or the darkest and most secure room of the 
prison, "at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sung 
praises unto God; and the prisoners heard them. And 
suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the founda- 
tions of the prison were shaken ; and immediately all the 
doors w T ere opened, and every one's bands were loosed. 
And the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep, 
and seeing the prison-doors open, he drew out his sword, 
and would have killed himself, supposing that the prison- 
ers had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, say- 
ing, Do thyself no harm ; for we are all here. Then he 
called for a light, and sprung in, and came trembling, and 
fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, 
and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they 
said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word 



108 Lessons for Youth. 

of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he 
took them the same hour of the night, and washed their 
stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. 
And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat 
before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his 
house." 

As inference is relied upon so confidently by some in 
reference to immersion as the one exclusive mode of bap- 
tism, let us try the strength of inference in this very remark- 
able example of baptism as performed by these apostles. 

1. The hour is stated. "At midnight" they "prayed 
and sung praises." 

2. The "same hour of the night" the jailer and all his 
were baptized, so that the w T hole thing transpired in about 
one hour. 

3. The jailer brought Paul and Silas out of the inner 
prison into another department of the prison-house, we in- 
fer, and possibly into the room where the jailer and his 
family were sleeping when he awoke and saw the prison- 
doors open ; and we infer that it was in this department or 
room where he received baptism from the apostles ; for his 
w 7 hole family seem to have been present, and all of his 
family were baptized there and then, about midnight, ac- 
cording to the statements. Now, w r e ask — 

(1) Is there any reasonable data upon which we may 
reasonably infer that the jailer and all his w T ere immersed 
as the mode of baptism ? 

(2) If they w T ere immersed, we must infer some other 
things, as a tank, pond, or pool, containing enough water 
in w r hich to immerse the subjects; or we must infer that 
the jailer and all his family, with Paul and Silas, w 7 ent to 
some place outside of the prison to secure immersion. Is 
this a fair inference? How strange this would appear in 
the face of the facts stated ! He had cast these men into 



Lessons for Youth. 109 

the inner prison to secure them, because he was charged 
to keep them safely, and his life probably had to pay the 
forfeit of known duty upon his part. This, then, would be 
an inference contrary to the facts stated, and therefore an 
inference contrary to reason. To infer that there was a 
pond, pool, or cistern, in the prison-house in which the 
jailer and all his were immersed by Paul and Silas about 
midnight, would require a long stretch of inferential ca- 
pacity; and then, besides, it must have been a very sub- 
stantial construction, or else the powers that shook the 
foundations of the prison-house might have broken it to 
pieces. 

(3) Suppose w T e infer that the whole transaction, from 
first to last, is a contradiction to any such an inference. 

(4) And suppose we infer that the jailer and all his 
were baptized by pouring or sprinkling, in the jailer's room 
of the prison-house, about midnight, and that the whole 
affair transpired in about one hour, including the prayers 
that preceded the earthquake and its results, the confession 
of the jailer, and the baptism of himself and family. What 
think you of this inference as to the mode of their baptism ? 

(5) Inference: Suppose we infer that Paul and Silas 
were well instructed in the law of Moses, and in the proph- 
ecies respecting Christ's baptism with the Holy Ghost, and 
upon what John and Jesus had said of water as a type of 
the Spirit in exact accordance with the law and the proph- 
ecies, which Jesus said must be fulfilled, kept, or observed; 
then what would be the natural, the legitimate, and logical 
inference as to how they baptized the "jailer and all his," 
about midnight, in the prison-house, and doubtless in the 
presence of all the other prisoners? I would infer that 
the water was poured or sprinkled upon them, in exact 
fulfillment of the law and the prophecies, as a type of the 
baptism of the Holy Spirit. 



110 Lessons for Youth. 

EXAMPLE IV. 

The fourth example we notice is that recorded in Acts 
ix. 1-21. It is the baptism of Saul of Tarsus, who was 
subsequently called Paul the apostle. 

1. The place where he was baptized. It was in the city 
of Damascus. 

2. It was on the street that was called Straight. 

3. It was in the house of Judas. (See verses 10, 11.) 

4. Mark who baptized Saul, as he was then called. 

5. It was Ananias, a disciple, of whom it is said (Acts 
xxii. 12, 13): "And one Ananias, a devout man according 
to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which 
dwelt there, came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, 
Brother Saul, receive thy sight." It is stated. (Acts ix. 
18), "And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had 
been scales ; and he received sight forthwith, and arose, 
and was baptized." There are some other features in the 
facts stated in reference to this example of baptism to 
which we invite attention. In addition to the facts stated, 
that this baptism was performed in the city of Damascus, 
on the street that w T as called Straight, and in the house of 
Judas, and that he arose and was baptized, we offer — 

6. The statement made by Saul, or Paul, of Ananias: 
"A devout man according to the law, having a good report 
of all the Jews which dwelt there." We understand by 
that expression that Ananias was a strict observer of the 
law of Moses, which was the law given to the Jews, so 
called, and that Ananias accepted Christ, became his dis- 
ciple, and lived according to the law of the then existing 
Church, accepting such changes of ritual as were brought 
in by Christ of necessity upon the change of the priest- 
hood. Saul himself by birth was a Jew, and of the strict- 
est sect of the Pharisees prior to his becoming a Christian ; 
but he was an unbelieving Jew, had rejected Christ, and 



Lessons for Youth. Ill 

was a bold persecutor. After he is converted to the Chris- 
tian faith, he accepts Christ, and receives baptism at the 
hands of another strict or devout believing Jew, who had 
become Christ's disciple. Then we infer — 

7. That Ananias, a devout man according to the law, 
baptized Saul in exact accordance with the law as to the 
mode of administration, and in fulfillment of the proph- 
ecies which had so definitely fixed the mode of the appli- 
cation of the water as well as that of the blood, and in 
accordance with the prophecies of spiritual baptism. 

8. Inference: We offer another basis upon which to make 
some inferences as to the mode of baptism. It is the ques- 
tion recorded in John i. 25: "And they asked him (John), 
and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not 
that Christ, nor Elias, neither that Prophet?" They had 
asked John, "Who art thou?" (Verse 19.) His answer 
was, " I am not the Christ." (Verse 20.) The first inference 
is that they thought John was Christ, because John bap- 
tized. Then the question naturally arises, Why should 
they expect that Christ would baptize? We answer, be- 
cause it had been said by the prophet (Isa. Hi. 15), "So 
shall he sprinkle many nations," and this prophecy is re- 
ferred to Christ. Philip quotes from the next chapter of 
Isaiah (liii. 7, 8) to the eunuch, in Acts viii. 32, 33: "The 
place of the Scripture which he read was this, He was led 
as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before 
his shearer, so opened he not his mouth ; in his humiliation 
his judgment was taken away; and who shall declare his 
generation? for his life is taken from the earth." Verses 
34, 35 : "And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I 
pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, 
or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, 
and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him 
Jesus." Verse 36: "And as they went on their way, 



112 Lessons for Youth. 

they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, 
here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?" We 
infer that Philip preached somewhat of baptism to the 
eunuch, from the question that he asked Philip, and that 
he spoke of what Isaiah had said of Christ, " So shall he 
sprinkle many nations;" and the fair inference is that 
Philip baptized the eunuch by sprinkling, which mode was 
according to the prophecies and according to the law. 
Again, there is not a single prophecy recorded in the Old - 
Testament having reference to Jesus Christ that even inti- 
mates any thing about immersion as the mode of spiritual 
baptism ; and Philip preached Jesus from the Old Testa- 
ment. Where then did he get an idea of immersion ? We 
infer that there was no immersion in that case. The im- 
mersionists infer that he was immersed. Which is the 
strongest ground for inference? 

Note Ezekiel's prophecy in reference to the Holy Spirit? 
as descriptive of the mode of its application, and of its 
effects, and the symbol or type by which he speaks of it 
(Ezek. xxx vi. 25-27): "Then will I sprinkle clean water 
upon you, and ye shall be clean ; from all your filthiness, 
and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart 
also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you ; 
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I 
will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit 
within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye 
shall keep my judgments, and do them." " There are three 
that bear witness in earth — the Spirit, and the water, and 
the blood; and these three agree in one." They agree in 
one mode of administration. The law, and the prophecies, 
and the teachings and practice of Jesus Christ and his 
apostles, agree upon this identical subject — the Spirit, the 
water, and the blood. We claim to have shown in pre- 
vious lessons that Christ has been the only Lawgiver to the 



Lessons for Youth. 113 

Church, from the Aclamic transgression to the present. 
He (Christ), or John the Baptist, or the apostles, never 
taught nor did any thing in contradiction of the law or the 
prophecies. The law was given by Christ. The proph- 
ecies were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Can anyone be- 
lieve that Christ, as the Lawgiver, would contradict himself? 
Can anyone believe that the Holy Spirit would contradict 
by the apostles what it had taught by the prophets ? 

The Scriptures — the whole Scriptures of the Old and the 
New Testaments — agree with themselves upon these im- 
portant subjects. The Old Testament is authenticated 
Church history before the coming of Christ in the flesh. 
The New Testament is authenticated Church history under 
the ministry of John, and Jesus Christ, and the inspired 
apostles. 



LESSON XXXII. 

Oil tlie Authority of the Scriptures. 

Who are they that -reject the Old Testament Scriptures ? 
and why do they reject them as being of no authority 
upon the doctrines and usages of the Church? 

We offer three words for your consideration as meaning 
the identical same thing in the Scriptures: 

1. The word Israel. "Behold an Israelite indeed, in 
whom is no guile. " (John i. 47.) 

2. The word Family. "Of whom the whole family in 
heaven and earth is named." (Eph. iii. 15.) 

3. The word Church implies a body of people who love 
and serve God. 

For more upon this subject we refer you to the lessons 
on One Family, One Church. 

In answer to the question, Who are they that reject the 
Old Testament Scriptures? we remark: 



114 Lessons for Youth. 

1. Those who hold to immersion as the only scriptu- 
ral mode of baptism refuse to accept the teachings of the 
Old Testament Scriptures as legitimate proof upon the doc- 
trines and usages of the Church of the present day. This 
is no secret. They are open and bold in their rejection of 
any argument or proof that may be offered from the Old 
Testament Scriptures or based upon their teachings. This 
rejection is plainly written and published in their books. 
This rejection of the Old Testament is boldly, repeatedly, 
defiantly preached by their preachers. It constitutes no 
minor part of their preaching. Many of them read but 
very little of the Old Testament Scriptures, because they 
regard them as of no authority. To illustrate this, we will 
relate an incident. An old gentleman, who had been a 
member of the Church for many years, and was regarded 
as a devout man, as far as we know, approached us, and 
remarked: "You Methodists sprinkle water upon people, 
and call it baptism. Where do you get it? There is no 
sprinkling in my Bible." We replied : "Our book has some 
sprinkling in it. The New Testament speaks of sprinkling, 
in various places. And Ezekiel speaks of sprinkling clean 
water upon the people." He doubted what we had said as 
the truth, and intimated that it was not in his book ; but 
asked, " Where can I find it? " We said, Ezekiel xxxvi. 25. 
His house was about one hundred yards away. He said, 
" I will go and see if I can find what you say." He started 
off to get his book to hunt sprinkle. He went about thirty 
steps and turned around, and asked us, "Where is Eze- 
kiel ? Is it in the New Testament, or in the Old Testa- 
ment?" We replied, "It is in the Old Testament." He 
went on, and we suppose he read the place, possibly for the 
first time in his life, where the prophet spoke of sprinkling 
clean water. But suppose he found the scripture, "Sprinkle 
clean water." It was in the wrong book for him. His 



Lessons for Youth. 115 

preacher taught him that the Old Testament was no au- 
thority for them in any of these things. 

2. When, where, and by whom was this rejection of the 
Old Testament Scriptures introduced into the Christian 
Church? In answer, we remark: According to the best 
authority that we have or know any thing of, it was intro- 
duced in the sixteenth century. 

(1) Tacitly, or virtually, by the Anabaptists. The Ana- 
baptists "first made their appearance, or came into exist- 
ence, in the province of Upper Germany" in "1524." 
(See Ruter's Church History, p. 345 ; Benedict's History, 
p. 123 ; Fisher, p. 137.) "The name Anabaptist was given 
to signify that persons baptized in infancy ought to be bap- 
tized anew." This sect had no written acknowledged arti- 
cles of faith as such that I have been able to find. His- 
tory gives some of their peculiar notions, but not in the 
shape of acknowledged articles of faith that I have ever 
seen. The nearest to articles of faith that they introduced 
appears to be what they denominated "believers' baptism," 
and the positive rejection of " infant baptism." They held 
to immersion as the exclusive or only mode of baptism, 
and that of adult believers. AVe claim that it is a fair in- 
ference, from these facts of their history, that they rejected 
the teachings of the Old Testament Scriptures as proof 
upon those subjects. Hence we said that they tacitly re- 
jected the Old Testament Scriptures upon Church law and 
usages. 

(2) " The Antinomians arose about the same period." 
(Ruter's Church History, p. 349.) 

There are some facts worthy of note in reference to these 
two organizations — the Anabaptists and the Antinomians 
— viz. : 

The first fact is that they came into existence about the 
same time. 



116 Lessons for Youth. 

The second fact is that Anabaptists adopt adult immer- 
sion. 

The third fact is that the Antinomians reject the Old 
Testament Scriptures, according to history as stated by 
Ruter's Church History. 

To prove that the Antinomians rejected the teachings of 
the Old Testament, we quote from Euter, p. 350. He says 
of the Antinomians: " Their founder was John Agricola, a 
native of Eisleben, originally also a disciple of Luther. 
The supporters of the popish doctrines deducing a consid- 
erable portion of the arguments on which they rested their 
defense from the doctrines of the old law, this overzealous 
reformer was encouraged by the success of his master 
(Luther) to attack the very foundation of their arguments, 
and to deny that any part of the Old Testament was in- 
tended as a rule of faith or practice to the disciples of 
Christ. Thus he not only rejected the moral authority of 
even the Ten Commandments, but he and his followers, con- 
ceiving some of the expressions in the writings of the apostles 
in too literal a sense, produced a system which appears in 
many respects scarcely consistent with the moral attributes 
of Deity. The principal doctrines which at present bear 
this appellation (Antinomians) are said to be as follows : 

" 1. That the law ought not to be proposed to the peo- 
ple as a rule of manners, nor used in the Church as a 
means of instruction ; and that the gospel alone is to be 
inculcated and explained, both in the churches and in the 
schools of learning. 

" 2. That the justification of sinners is an imminent 
and eternal act of God, not only preceding all acts of sin, 
but the existence of the sinner himself* 

* " This is the opinion of most who are styled Antinomians, though 
some suppose, with Dr. Crisp, that the elect were justified at the 
time of Christ's death." 



Lessons for Youth. 117 

" 3. That justification by faith is no more than a mani- 
festation to us of what was done before we had a being. 

" 4. That men ought not to doubt of their faith, or ques- 
tion whether they believe in Christ. 

" 5. That God sees no sin in believers, and they are not 
bound to confess sin, mourn for it, or pray that it may be 
forgiven. 

" 6. That God is not angry with the elect, nor does he 
punish them for their sins. 

" 7. That by God's laying our iniquities upon Christ, he 
became as completely sinful as we, and we as completely 
righteous as Christ. 

" 8. That believers need not fear either their own sins or 
the sins of others, since neither can do them any injury. 

"9. That the new covenant is not made properly with 
us, but with Christ for us; and that this covenant is all of 
it a promise, having no conditions for us to perform ; for 
faith, repentance, and obedience are not conditions on our 
part, but Christ's; and that he repented, believed, and 
obeyed for us. 

"10. That sanctification is not a proper evidence of jus- 
tification." 

We have copied this from Ruter as he has it in his Church 
History. We could give extracts from other writers as a 
confirmation of the correctness of his statements as to 
what the Antinomians believed and taught. It would be 
foreign to the subject of our lesson to indulge in these ex- 
tracts. We refer the reader to the People's Cyclopedia, 
published in 1881 ; to Watson's Biblical and Theological 
Dictionary ; to what is said under the words Antinomianism 
and Calvinism, embodying the five points of Calvinism as 
set forth by Calvin in his Institutes. 

We remark upon the quotation from Ruter as above: 

1. The first specification, in connection with what pre- 



118 Lessons for Youth. 

cedes it, is proof positive that the Antinomians did reject 
the teachings of the Old Testament, even the Ten Com- 
mandments.. 

2. The other nine specifications of doctrine as held by 
the Antinomians, in connection with the first, will appear 
to many as links of a chain composed of strange absurd- 
ities, and will give to the reader some idea of those who 
adopt somewhat of such absurdities. 

3. The Anabaptists rejected sprinkling as a mode of 
baptism, and they rejected infant baptism. They adopted 
what is called believers' baptism by immersion as the only 
baptism. The Antinomians rejected the Old Testament, 
and said that it was not to be taught in the churches nor 
the schools. So that from these two organizations we can 
form some opinion as to where and when, and by whom, 
these things were introduced as doctrines taught in our day. 



LESSON XXXIII. 

Why, or for Wliat Reason, are tlie Old Testament 
Scriptures Rejected? 

This question was partly answered in the previous les- 
son in the extract that we gave from Euter (p. 350), viz. : 
" Their founder was John Agricola, . . originally also 
a disciple of Luther. . . This overzealous reformer was 
encouraged by the success of his master to attack the very 
foundation of their arguments, and to deny that any part 
of the Old Testament was intended as a rule of faith or 
practice to the disciples of Christ. Thus he not only re- 
jected the moral authority of even the Ten Command- 
ments/' etc. He (John Agricola) rejected the Old Testa- 
ment because " the supporters of the popish doctrines de- 
duced a considerable portion of the arguments on which 
they rested their defense from the doctrines of the old law." 



Lessons for Youth. 119 

This is a stated reason ,why the Old Testament was rejected 
by the Antiuomians. It is not stated what those peculiar 
doctrines were that caused the Old Testament to be re- 
jected, except that as a whole they w T ere rejected, not ex- 
cepting even the Ten Commandments. We are left to infer 
what those doctrines were. 

We stated in another place that those who rejected in- 
fant baptism, and hold to what is termed "believers' bap- 
tism by immersion only," as a body of people do reject the 
Old Testament as authority upon those subjects; and this 
peculiar trait of doctrinal teachings connects them with 
the Antiuomians in this respect. Therefore we said that 
the Anabaptists tacitly rejected the teachings of the Old 
Testament Scriptures by their new baptism. Let it be re- 
membered that these two sects arose about the same time 
in the sixteenth century of the Christian era. 

Now, as inference is relied upon largely to establish im- 
mersion as the exclusive scriptural mode of baptism, we 
propose some facts and inferences as to the reasons why 
the Old Testament Scriptures are rejected by the advocates 
for immersion and rejecters of infant baptism. 

The first fact is that the law and the prophecies do furnish 
abundant proof against immersion as a mode of baptism, 
in that they define the mode of cleansing, purifying con- 
secrations and dedications to have been that of pouring or 
sprinkling. We infer therefore that the immersionists find 
it necessary to evade the force of these prominent teach- 
ings of the law and the prophecies to reject the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures. This is an easy way of disposing of ar- 
guments which otherwise would be unanswerable. 

The second fact is that the Old Testament is explicit and 
positive as to the rights and relations of the children under 
the covenants and the law. So that there is no possible 
evasion of its force and teachings, if it is admitted as au- 



120 Lessons for Youth. 

thority upon that subject. Therefore we infer that the 
rejecters of infant baptism find it important to their views 
to reject the Old Testament as authority upon this subject. 
This is a convenient way of disposing of arguments which 
otherwise are beyond contradiction. 

The third fact is that the Old Testament does teach that 
there was in that day and age of the world organizations of 
people w r ho claimed to worship God, and that they were 
under laws and rituals of worship, and had their leaders, 
prophets, officers, synagogues, temples, sanctuaries, pass- 
overs, etc., all from God as their Lawgiver; that many of 
them by name are spoken of as righteous people, and some 
of their names are incorporated into the New Testament, 
several in Hebrews xi. ; that some of the names and appel- 
lations by which they were called there are given in the New 
Testament as applicable to what we now call the Church ; 
and that it is distinctly stated, in speaking of that people 
in Acts vii. 37, 38, that some of them were "the church in 
the wilderness, who received the lively oracles to give unto 
us." We infer from these facts and statements that "the 
lively oracles to give unto us" were intended to be received 
as authority from God, and in proof positive of the exist- 
ence then of what we now call the Church, and that they 
were to be taught to the people as proper authority, 
with such modifications as were necessarily brought in by 
Jesus Christ upon the change of the priesthood. (Heb. 
vii. 12.) 

The fourth fact is that the immersionists of this day as a 
body of people deny the existence of the Church in Old 
Testament times. We infer that the Old Testament teach- 
ings upon this subject are so explicit that they would be 
compelled to admit the existence of the Church prior to 
the manifestation of Jesus Christ in the flesh, and that 
therefore the most ready way to evade this truth is to reject 



Lessons for Youth. 121 



the Old Testament Scriptures as of no authority upon that 
subject. 

The fifth fact is that a large proportion of the immer- 
sionists of this day are Antinomians in some of the prominent 
features of their avowed doctrines as embodied in what are 
termed the five points of Calvinism, viz. : (1) Of predesti- 
nation; (2) of the death of Christ; (3) of man's corrup- 
tion ; (4) of grace and free-will ; (5) of perseverance, as 
defined by Calvin. Calvinism and Antinomianism we re- 
gard as synonymous terms — as words representing the same 
doctrines. The w T ord " fatalism" is a more correct word by 
which to represent the same doctrines. While the word 
"Antinomian n is defined to be "one who denies the obliga- 
tion of the moral law," the prominent doctrines called by 
that name are absolute fatalism. 

The sixth fact is that these five points of doctrine, called 
Calvinism most commonly, are a system of connected links 
of doctrine which necessarily imply each other to be true ; 
so that one cannot be separated from the others without 
breaking the chain. The first (of predestination), as 
taught by its advocates, implies the balance to be true. 
We are not disposed to take them up in their specifica- 
tions. The fifth (of perseverance), as stated by the Anti- 
nomians, is explicit: "That God sees no sin in believers, 
and they are not bound to confess sin, mourn for it, or pray 
that it may be forgiven." This system of doctrines has 
been advocated from that day to the present. We infer that 
the reason why they rejected the Old Testament Script- 
ures is the fact that it abounds with examples not a few 
in which it is distinctly stated that men sinned who were 
called righteous men, and that they were punished for their 
sins, and this fact acknowledged would be a contradiction 
to the article on perseverance. Again, it abounds with ad- 
monitions, warnings, threatenings, and promises that would 
9 



122 Lessons for Youth. 

be a contradiction to their way of defining the first article — 
on predestination. It was to evade the force of arguments 
drawn from the Old Testament that they rejected its teach- 
ings. We infer that it is for these identical purposes and 
reasons that some of the Calvinists and immersionists who 
reject infant baptism now reject the teachings of the Old 
Testament, and assert that there never was any Church in 
existence until the days of John the Baptist, and Jesus 
Christ came in the flesh, and the day of Pentecost had 
passed. Does not the rejection of the Old Testament 
Scriptures amount to being half infidel? 



LESSON XXXIV. 

The Two Adamic Covenants. 

As an introduction to what may follow, let us define the 
word covenant. Mr. Watson says that "in theology the 
covenant of works is that implied in the commands, pro- 
hibitions, and promises of God to man, that man's perfect 
obedience should entitle him to happiness. This do, and 
live. That do, and die." He says, " The covenant of grace 
is that by which God engages to bestow salvation on men 
upon condition that man shall believe in Christ and yield 
obedience on the terms of the gospel. " This definition of 
the word covenant indicates what we propose as the subject 
of investigation, viz., the Two Adamic Covenants. 

1. The first Adamic covenant was made with Adam in 
his original state of moral purity. 

2. The second Adamic covenant was made with Adam 
after his sin and consequent fall, and was brought in by 
and through the second Adam, who was Christ, the Medi- 
ator of the new covenant. 

3. The Adamic race has been under these two covenants 
from the creation and subsequent fall of man to the pres- 



Lessons for Youth. 123 

ent, with their developments and specifications as arranged 
and adapted to their circumstances and wants by the Me- 
diator and Lawgiver, even the Christ of the Old Testa- 
ment and Jesus Christ of the New Testament; these two 
covenants, in their specifications and demands, being ap- 
plicable to the Adamic race first as righteous, and second 
as fallen and redeemed — the first Adam in his moral 
likeness having been a figure of the second Adam which 
was to come, who is called the last Adam made a quicken- 
ing spirit. (1 Cor. xv. 45.) Also called "the second man 
is the Lord from heaven." (Verse 47.) These expres- 
sions indicate the twofold character or nature of the sec- 
ond Adam, in the person of Jesus Christ, which corre- 
sponds with the twofold character of the priesthood of Jesus 
Christ. He was in one sense the "seed of the woman," 
and in another sense he was the " Son of God." There- 
fore, in one sense we may appropriately call him the second 
Adam; and w T e may appropriately call these two cove- 
nants Adamic covenants, because they were made with and 
by, or through, the two Adamic personages — the last, or 
second, as the Mediator and Redeemer of the first fallen 
Adam and his posterity. 

The question may be appropriately asked, Why and in 
what sense is the second covenant called a new covenant? 
We may also ask, When was the new covenant made avail- 
able to the salvation of the fallen Adamic family? We 
may also ask, What portion, if any, of the first covenant 
was perpetuated in the new covenant ; or was the first 
covenant all abrogated in the bringing in of the new cove- 
nant? We remark : 

1. The first Adam in his original moral state was created 
in the "image and likeness" of his Creator, and that "im- 
age and, likeness" consisted in "knowledge, righteousness, 
and true holiness; " and the first covenant made with him 



124 Lessons fok Youth. 

was adapted to the capacities and necessities of Adam as 
a righteous and holy man, knowing good from evil. These 
elements of moral nature were forfeited by his sin and 
fall. 

2. If through the mediation of the second Adam these 
elements of moral nature, knowledge, righteousness, and 
true holiness were restored, or made possible, to the fallen 
and redeemed Adam, then why should that part of the 
first covenant which was adapted to his original capacities 
and necessities be abrogated in or by the new covenant, 
since the new covenant was to bring back to him through 
a mediator what he had lost by transgression? 

3. The new covenant embraced a mediator (Christ) in 
addition to the first covenant — a new way of approach to 
God by the fallen race — and may therefore appropriately 
be called the new covenant, because sin must be atoned 
for ; and as fallen and guilty, there must needs be a media- 
tion brought in, and through the mediator was essentially 
a new way to that of his original state, for in his original 
state of knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness Adam 
had no need of a mediator, but held personal, friendly, 
satisfactory communion with his Creator. Watson's defi- 
nition of the covenant of works, as he terms it, imposed 
obedience as one of its specifications. Is not obedience 
one of the prominent features of the new covenant of grace, 
as he defines it, as verily as it was in the covenant of 
works, as he calls it, w T ith the addition of a belief in 
Christ as the Mediator. The "commands, prohibitions, and 
promises of God to man," of which Watson speaks, cer- 
tainly implied belief upon the part of Adam in the au- 
thority of the Creator and the truth of his promises, and 
they implied a capacity upon the part of Adam to comply 
with the divine requisitions. 

4. The first Adamic covenant imposed a belief or trust 



Lessons for Youth. 125 

in God, a love to God, and obedience to God, as a duty 
naturally growing out of the relation of Adam to his 
Creator. A righteous man now, under the covenant of 
grace, or the new covenant, must believe, trust in God, 
love God, and obey God, but his faith must embrace Christ 
as a Mediator; and this one additional feature constitutes 
the essential difference between the two covenants. The 
essential features or principles of divine requisitions that 
constituted the first covenant were, and are, perpetuated 
in the new covenant. It is foreign from our purpose to 
expose by direct criticism what we regard as the absurd- 
ities upon this subject which have been taught and are 
now believed by some. 

5. The introduction or bringing in of the new covenant 
brought also of necessity a change of the ritual of wor- 
ship; but the change in the ritual, or the bringing in of a 
ritual that symbolized or represented Christ as the Medi- 
ator, did not abrogate the original essentials of the first 
covenant. With this understanding of the two Adamic 
covenants, we claim that the Adamic race, from the crea- 
tion of the first Adam up to the present, has been under 
the two covenants, and that all other covenants have been 
explanations, developments, and enforcements of these two 
covenants in their demands upon the fallen and redeemed 
race of the first Adam. 

6. The essential work, or design and features, of the 
new covenant, which was brought in by and through the sec- 
ond Adam, or "last man, the Lord from heaven," w 7 ho was 
Christ Jesus as manifested in the flesh, " when the fullness 
of the time was come, . . that we might receive the 
adoption of sons" (Gal. iv. 4, 5), w T as to restore man to a 
fttate of possible salvation after the fall of the first Adam ; 
the essential elements of which possible salvation consisted 
in "knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness." In these 



126 Lessons for Youth. 

elements of moral nature the fallen man must be renewed 
in order to salvation under the new covenant, and these 
elements of moral nature were the essential elements de- 
manded in the first covenant. We say demanded, because 
they were imparted to the first Adam in his original state 
of moral purity. 

7. There is no possible salvation to men now under the 
new covenant without this renewal of moral nature — which 
comes alone through the mediation of Christ Jesus — by 
the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. 

8. The whole Scriptures contained in the Old and New 
Testaments harmonize upon this view of the covenants; 
nor can they be made to harmonize upon any other hypoth- 
esis. For the Scriptures w T hich speak of Adam as a repre- 
sentative man speak also of Christ as equally a represent- 
ative character — e. g., Romans v. 19: "For as by one 
man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the 
obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Again, 
1 Corinthians xv. 22 : " For as in Adam all die, even so in 
Christ shall all be made alive." Once more, Romans v. 
20, 21: "Moreover, the law entered that the offense might 
abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more 
abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might 
grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus 
Christ our Lord." 



LESSON XXXV. 

On tlie Intermediate Covenants. 

By the intermediate covenants we mean those covenants 
which were made or brought in between that one which 
specified that of "her seed it shall bruise thy head, and 
thou shalt bruise his heel" (Gen. iii. 15), and the fulfill- 
ment of the prophecy as specified in Galatians iv. 4, 5: 
"But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent 



Lessons for Youth. 127 

forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to 
redeem them that were under the law, that we might re- 
ceive the adoption of sons." Between these two events — 
the promise after the fall of Adam and the manifestation 
of the death of Jesus Christ — there were several other 
specifications given, which were called covenants. These 
we call intermediates, because they intervened between the 
promise and prophecy of a Kedeemer and its final perfec- 
tion in the death of the Redeemer, while yet the efficiency 
of his mediation as a Redeemer was available to salvation 
to Adam and his posterity from the time that the promise 
was made. (Gen. iii. 15.) These intermediate covenants 
were explanations, developments, and enforcements of the 
two Adamic covenants in their meanings, privileges, and 
obligations upon and for the Adamic family. 

1. The Noahic covenant after the flood, in its specifica- 
tions. Genesis ix. 8, 9 : "And God spake unto Noah, and 
to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my 
covenant wdth you, and with your seed after you." We 
remark that Noah was a righteous man and a preacher of 
righteousness, who with his family were preserved from the 
flood which destroyed the wicked from the earth. This 
covenant in its specifications embraces the seed of Noah 
by positive specification as to the blessings promised. So 
that in this respect it accords with the Adamic covenants. 
As a seal or token of the truth of this covenant on the part 
of God, he said : " For perpetual generations I do set my 
bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant 
between me and the earth." (Gen. ix. 12, 13.) Noah, as a 
righteous man and a preacher of righteousness, understood 
and obeyed the specifications of the previous covenants, 
and taught the then existing ritual of worship to his chil- 
dren, and to others to whom he preached prior to the flood. 
(2 Pet. ii. 5.) Noah and Abel were acceptable members 



128 Lessons for Youth. 

of the then existing Church (or family of the Lord), and 
salvation was possible then through the efficacy of the 
new covenant. And the covenant that was made with 
Noah embraced his seed after him by positive specification. 
2. The Abrahamic covenant (Gen. xvii.) was a more 
full, and therefore more perfect, development of the new 
covenant in its meanings, specifications, and applications 
than any that had preceded it, or than that of Noah. This 
Abrahamic covenant was so important in its bearings that 
a seal or token of its truth and importance was given and 
perpetuated as a part of the ritual of the then existing 
Church (or family of the Lord), which seal or token was 
perpetuated unto the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. 

(1) The specifications of promise embodied in the Abra- 
hamic covenant were several and positive. 

(2) The specifications of requisition were also several 
and positive. 

(3) They were solemn and binding upon those who re- 
ceived its token or seal, which was circumcision. 

(4) Circumcision was the then appointed rite or token by 
which the members of the Church (or family of the Lord) 
were designated, set apart, and obligated as such. 

(5) It was so important in its bearings that there was 
no recognition of Church-membership without this token 
or seal. 

(6) This token or seal was imposed upon the children at 
eight days old, and was so important that none were to eat 
of the passover who had not received this token or seal. 

(7) The child who had not been circumcised was cut off 
from his people ; by which we understand exclusion from 
the privileges of the Church. (Gen. xvii. 14; Ex. xii. 48.) 

(8) This sign and seal of the covenant, made with Abra- 
ham, was practiced, kept up, until Jesus Christ was mani- 
fested in the flesh. The child Jesus was born of religious 



Lessons for Youth. 129 

parents as to his humanity.^They were members of the 
then existing Church; and, according to the then existing 
law or ritual of the Church, they had the child Jesus cir- 
cumcised at eight days old. (Luke ii. 21.) 

(9) The new or second Adamic covenant was so fully 
developed in its meaning and application, in the specifica- 
tions of the Abrahamic covenant, that it was said : " Even 
as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for 
righteousness, know ye therefore that they which are of 
faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the 
Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen 
through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, 
saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." (Gal. iii. 
6-8.) Again : " Now to Abraham and his seed were the 
promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; 
but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And 
this I say, That the covenant that was confirmed before of 
God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty 
years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the prom- 
ise of none effect/' (Verses 16, 17.) Again: "For ye are 
all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as 
many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put 
on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither 
bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are 
all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are 
ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." 
(Verses 26-29.) Once more: "Now I say that Jesus 
Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth 
of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." 
(Rom. xv. 8.) 

(10) We repeat that the Abrahamic covenant, in its 
specifications, w r as an explanation, development, and en- 
forcement of the new covenant, of which Jesus Christ was 
the Mediator, more fully than any that had preceded it. 



130 Lessons for Youth. 

There was such a development of Christ and the gospel in it 
that Christ is called the seed of Abraham, and that the 
gospel is said to have been preached to Abraham. 

(11) The fact, as stated in Romans xv. 8, that "Jesus 
Christ was a minister of the circumcision/' etc., is proof 
positive that there has never been but one Lawgiver to the 
Church. It was Christ, in his divinity character, who 
made that covenant with Abraham of which circumcision 
was the sign and seal. It was Christ inaugurating the 
ritual of the Church preparatory to his final manifestation 
in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ, as the one Me- 
diator between God and men. It was Christ, in his medi- 
atorial character, who brought in the second or new 
Adamic covenant after the sin and fall of the first Adam. 
It was Christ that confirmed this new covenant that em- 
braced the children by positive specific law; and that con- 
firmation is perfected in the New Testament by his own 
words and teachings, when he says of the children, " Of 
such is the kingdom of God." "And except ye be con- 
verted, and become as little children, ye cannot enter into 
the kingdom of heaven." (Mark x. 13-16; Matt, xviii. 
2-6.) 

3. Synopsis of other covenants from that with Abraham 
to the finishing of the ministry of Moses. Deuteronomy 
xxix. 9-15 : " Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and 
do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do. Ye stand this 
day all of you before the Lord your God ; your captains 
of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the 
men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger 
that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the 
drawer of thy water : that thou shouldest enter into cove- 
nant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the 
Lord thy God maketh with thee this day: that he may 
establish thee to-day for a people unto himself, and that he 



Lessons for Youth. 131 

may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as 
he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and 
to Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant 
and this oath ; but with him that standeth here with us this 
day before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not 
here this day." Deuteronomy iv. 13 : "And he declared 
unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to per- 
form, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon 
two tables of stone." The specifications of this covenant are 
recorded in Deuteronomy v. ; the fourth verse reads thus : 
"The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out 
of the midst of the fire. I stood between the Lord and 
you at that time to show you the word of the Lord." 

We repeat that these covenants were additional explana- 
tions, developments, and enforcements of the two Adamic 
covenants. 

4. Some of the prominent features of all the covenants 
from the first Adamic covenant to the end of the life and 
ministry of Moses. 

(1) They all demanded righteousness of life, and this 
righteousness implied three actions or elements of moral 
life of those who were obligated — first, to believe God ; 
second, to love God ; third, to obey God ; because there 
could be no righteousness in the absence of these three ele- 
ments of moral nature. The Lord said to Abraham, 
" Walk before me, and be thou perfect." 

(2) These intermediate covenants all embraced the chil- 
dren by positive specification. This is such a prominent 
feature in all of them, as well as that of others which were 
embraced in the two Adamic covenants, that we regard it 
as amounting to a demonstration that they were explana- 
tions, developments, and enforcements of the two Adamic 
covenants; and were intended to educate the Church and 
prepare the people for the introduction of the Messiah in 



132 Lessors for Youth. 

person in the flesh as the reality of the types and shadows 
which were to end in his coming and suffering death for 
sin — the just for the unjust. 

(3) As regards the children — upon the hypothesis that 
they fell in the first Adam, upon the same hypothesis they 
were as certainly mediated for and redeemed in or by 
Christ. Therefore, if sin attached unconditionally to them 
in any sense whatever by the sin of the first Adam, salva- 
tion was made available for them as unconditionally 
through Christ Jesus the second Adam. And the proof 
of this is the fact that they are embraced in all of the 
covenants. 

The proof that the covenants all demanded righteous- 
ness of heart and life, is the fact that 

1. The first Adam was a "righteous man." 

2. The second Adam was " holy, harmless, undefiled." 

3. The fallen Adam and his posterity were to be " re- 
newed in righteousness and true holiness" as a condition 
of salvation through Jesus Christ the second Adam. 

4. Abel and others were "righteous" men after the fall. 

5. Abraham and Job were perfect in the identical sense 
that perfection is now demanded in the New Testament. 

6. "Moses was very meek, above all the men which were 
upon the face of the earth." (Num. xii. 3.) 

7. " Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without 
which no man shall see the Lord." (Heb. xii. 14.) 

8. Yet in the face of these prominent features of all 
the covenants, the Old Testament Scriptures are not recog- 
nized as of any authority upon Church law, or usage, by 
some people who claim to be Christians. I repeat the in- 
terrogation : Are they not half infidel? Are they not, in 
this respect, Antichrist ? 



Lessons for Youth. 133 

LESSON XXXVI. 

Tlie Relation of the Children to the Covenants and 
the Church. 

1. The children are embraced in all the covenants. 

2. The relation of the children to the covenants and the 
Church is a natural relation, and also a relation of grace. 

3. The relation of the children to the covenants and the 
Church is a relation of necessity. 

4. The relation of the children to the covenants and the 
Church is a legal relation. 

5. The relation of the children to the covenants and the 
Church is an inalienable relation. 

The word " covenant," as applied to the Church, means 
the laws, ritual, or rules of worship; and in its specifica- 
tions and applications defines what the word "Church' 
implies. 

The covenants define who are members of the Church. 
The covenants define the terms of membership in the 
Church. This we regard as implied in those expressions 
made of Jesus Christ in Galatians iii. 17, and Komans xv. 8 : 
"That the covenant that was confirmed before of God in 
Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years 
after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of 
none effect." " Xow I say that Jesus Christ was a minis- 
ter of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm 
the promises made unto the fathers." 

1. The children are embraced in all the covenants. The 
two Adamic covenants, with the intermediate covenants, 
were the subject of the previous lesson, in which it was 
shown that all the covenants embraced the children as 
such; and that as verily as Adam was a representative 
character, as verily Christ was a representative character 
as Mediator. 



134 Lessons for Youth. 

2. The relation of the children to the covenants and the 
Church is a natural one; also that of grace. It is a natu- 
ral relation, because it grows out of the facts and circum- 
stances of their existence as children. As children, they 
are born under the promises; as children, they are of the 
legitimate members of the Church, or family of the Lord. 
Adam being a representative man, his children naturally 
get their relation to the covenants and the Church through 
the mediation of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. There- 
fore their relation is a natural relation, growing out of 
facts and circumstances with which they, as children, had 
nothing to do in the premises, they being passive in the sin 
of the first Adam. They are equally passive in the medi- 
ation of the second Adam. They, as children, had noth- 
ing to -do, personally, with the sin of the first Adam, or 
with the mediation of the second Adam. Through the re- 
lation of the first Adam theirs is a natural relation ; through 
the second Adam theirs is a relation of grace, in that they 
were as verily redeemed by Christ as that they fell in the 
first Adam. 

3. The relation of the children to the covenants and the 
Church is a relation of necessity. The necessity grows out 
of the fact that it is both natural and of grace, apart from 
any act upon their part as children; and also from the 
fact that justice and mercy could not have permitted the 
existence of the children apart from provisions of mercy 
adapted to their circumstances and wants as such. We 
claim therefore that while their relation is both natural 
and of grace, it is also a relation of necessity. 

4. The relation of the children to the covenants and the 
Church is a legal relation. By the w r ord "legal" we mean 
according to law; that they are subject to a law as chil- 
dren; that the law has demands upon the children; that 
they are liable to some sort of penalty under the law. 



Lessons for Youth. 135 

The proof is recorded in Genesis xvii. 14, and Exodus xii. 
48 : "And the uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his 
foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from 
his people ; he hath broken my covenant." " For no uncir- 
cumcised person shall eat thereof" (the passover). From 
these two expressions we infer that to be " cut off from his 
people" implied at least an exclusion from Church privi- 
leges or membership, " because he hath broken my cove- 
nant." 

The law therefore had a twofold meaning, or applica- 
tion: as, first, a demand upon the parents that they should 
keep, observe, the law which demanded that they, as par- 
ents, should have their children circumcised; second, that 
the child was to be cut off from his people if he was not 
circumcised — should not eat of the passover. 

This legal relation to the covenants and the Church was 
perpetuated from the time of its institution up to the com- 
ing of Jesus Christ in the flesh, who in person confirmed 
the covenant and promises made unto the fathers. The 
specifications of promise as positively embraced the children 
as it positively promised that Christ should come as Mes- 
siah. And when that covenant of promise was verified, it 
was as positively verified in the promise embracing the 
children as it was in any other respect. 

And it so happens — if the word "happen" be admissible 
—that the Lawgiver, Christ in the flesh, as the exponent of 
his own law to his own Church, says of the children, " Of 
such is the kingdom of God." The most meager definition 
that can be applied to his expression is that "of such is 
the Church." We understand this to mean that the 
children belong to the Church as legal members of it; 
and the Church, in its rights and privileges, belongs to the 
children through Jesus Christ. The children belong to 
Christ; and if they be Christ's, then are they the seed of 



136 Lessons for Youth. 

Abraham, and heirs according to the promise that was 
confirmed by Christ. (Gal. iii. 29.) 

5. The relation of the children to the covenants and the 
Church is an inalienable relation "that cannot be legally 
or justly alienated or transferred to another. All men 
have certain natural rights which are inalienable. The 
estate of a minor is inalienable without a reservation of 
the right to redemption, or the authority of the Legisla- 
ture." (Watson.) We ask, Who else but Jesus Christ, the 
one Lawgiver and one Mediator, had any right, power, or 
authority to alienate the rights of the children from their 
covenant Church relations ? We unhesitatingly assert that 
revelation furnishes no knowledge of any other being, per- 
son, or pow r er that could have alienated the rights of the 
children but Jesus Christ, for the reason that he was and 
is the only Lawgiver; and he confirmed their rights in 
positive, unequivocal language when he said of the chil- 
dren, "Of such is the kingdom of God." With this em- 
phatic language from the Lawgiver, in connection with 
the facts as set forth in the covenant specifications which 
preceded the incarnation of Messiah Christ, it is an irre- 
sistible conclusion that the covenant Church relation of 
the children w T as not alienated or done away with by Jesus 
Christ, but that he confirmed their relation as being legal 
members of the Church, in that they were covenant mem- 
bers by specific law, and that law was by Christ the Mes- 
siah in the Old Testament, and confirmed in the New 
Testament. 



LESSON XXXVII. 

Xlie Cliilclren Proper Subjects of Baptism. 

The children are now as proper subjects of typical water 
baptism in the Church, under the change of the ritual, as 
they were of typical circumcision before the change of the 



Lessons for Youth. 137 

ritual which was brought in of necessity by the change 
of the priesthood. 

1. In proof that a change of the ritual was brought in, we 
offer Hebrews vii. 12 : " For the priesthood being changed, 
there is made of necessity a change also of the law." It 
was clearly shown in previous lessons that the covenants 
embracing the children prior to this change of the priest- 
hood, which brought with it of necessity a change also of 
the law, was confirmed by Jesus Christ, the true High- 
priest in the New Testament. 

2. The change of the priesthood did not imply the crea- 
tion or organization of a new Church, but it did perfect 
the ritual of the same Church in the same sense that the 
higher or more perfect priesthood took the place of that 
order which was a type of the true priesthood. 

3. There was no necessity for or propriety in perpetuat- 
ing the typical priesthood, which had filled its mission of 
introducing the true High-priest in the person of Jesus 
Christ, which was done in that official act of baptism by 
John, a priest, when, he baptized the person of Jesus, upon 
which occasion the Holy Ghost witnessed, with the water, 
that Jesus Christ w T as the Son of God, by a voice from 
heaven and the anointing of the Holy Ghost. 

4. This true High-priest, ere he left this world by a visi- 
ble ascension, did change the ritual or law of this same 
Church as its only Lawgiver. He changed the passover, 
or let it end in its mission, by instituting the Lord's Sup- 
per, or sacrament as it is now called, one of the prominent 
features of which was to show forth his death until he 
should come again; whereas the passover looked to him 
as yet to come. It was a type of the death of the Medi- 
ator. Therefore the passover of necessity ceased — ended in 
its mission — when Jesus was crucified, because a perpetua* 
tion of it as a symbol of the future death of the Mediator 

10 



138 Lessons for Youth. 

would have been a contradiction of the fact of his death. 
Therefore the propriety and necessity of its change so as to 
symbolize the fact of his death, as the sacrament now does, 
and is therefore called "our Passover." "Therefore let us 
keep the feast." (1 Cor. v. 8.) 
1. Let us notice at this point — 

(1) The true High-priest abideth forever under the per- 
fection of the ritual which was necessarily brought in upon 
his inauguration as the true High-priest. 

(2) The true sacrament, or passover, takes the place of 
the typical passover by the bringing in of that which was 
perfect. " For even Christ our Passover is slain for us ; 
therefore let us keep the feast." 

(3) Let it be remembered that circumcision was an in- 
dispensable prerequisite as a qualification for membership 
in the Church prior to the coming of Jesus Christ, and to 
the eating of the typical passover, so that "no uncircum- 
cised person shall eat of it." 

(4) Circumcision and the passover were inseparably con- 
nected in this sense in the law or ritual of the Church, up 
to the change of the law that was necessarily brought in 
by the true High-priest, Jesus Christ. 

(5) Let it also be remembered that upon the change of 
the priesthood the true High-priest brought in, instituted, 
a new water baptism — new, at least, as to the words used 
by the administrator. This new baptism was and is to be 
administered in the name of the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost. This baptism was and is to be administered 
in the Church as a part of its ritual, to all nations, and to 
abide as a law in the Church to the end of the world. 
This baptism, as a type of spiritual baptism, is as truly 
and as positively typical in its meaning as the new pass- 
over or sacrament is typical of our Lord's death until he 
should come again. 



Lessons 'for Youth. 139 

(6) This new baptism is now an indispensable prerequi- 
site as a qualification for membership in the Church in the 
identical sense that circumcision was before the change of 
the law. And, by fair, logical reasoning, it is as indis- 
pensably necessary as a qualification to the eating or par- 
taking of the new passover, or sacrament, since the change 
of the law by the true High-priest. 

2. Let us notice the* spiritual meaning of typical circum- 
cision, and the spiritual meaning of typical water baptism. 

(1) Circumcision, as a typical rite, signified the purifica- 
tion of the heart, and filling it with the love of God. In 
other words, it implied a belief in God, a love for God, and 
obedience to God. Deuteronomy xxx. 6: "And the Lord 
thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed 
to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all 
thy soul, that thou mayest live." Deuteronomy x. 16 : " Cir- 
cumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more 
stiff-necked." These expressions furnish a positive proof 
from God himself that this precept, circumcision, pointed 
out spiritual blessings; and that it was not the cutting 
away a part of the flesh that was the object of the divine 
commandment, but the purification of the soul, without 
which all forms and ceremonies are of no avail. Loving 
God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, the heart 
being circumcised to enable them to do this, was, from the 
beginning, the end, design, and fulfillment of the whole 
law. The heart, therefore, is the seat of real, spiritual 
circumcision. The typical circumcision is in the letter and 
not in the spirit, as stated in Romans ii. 28, 29 : " For he 
is not a Jew which is one outwardly (only) ; neither is that 
circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew 
which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the 
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is 
not of men, but of God." 



140 Lessons for Youth. 

(2) Typical circumcision was the visible mode of initia- 
tion into the visible Church — a way of designating the 
members of the Church. It was a form of imposing obli- 
gations to God and his Church, and it had also a spiritual 
meaning. 

(3) The true spiritual circumcision is administered by 
Jesus Christ, through the operation of the Holy Ghost 
upon the heart, as well as the giver of* the typical rite of cir- 
cumcision as the one Lawgiver to his Church. Colossians 
ii. 11, 12: " In whom also ye' are circumcised with the cir- 
cumcision made without hands in putting off the body of 
the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; buried 
with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen w 7 ith him 
through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised 
him from the dead." Let us now notice — 

3. The spiritual meaning of typical water baptism. 

(1) We omit purposely, in this place, the testimony of 
prophecy, as recorded in the Old Testament upon this sub- 
ject, and refer the reader to a previous lesson upon that 
subject, and offer a few expressions made in the New Testa- 
ment as the basis for thought. 

(2) John asserts (Mark i. 8) : "I indeed have baptized 
you with water, but he (Jesus) shall baptize you with the 
Holy Ghost." Jesus says (Acts i. 5) : " For John truly 
baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy 
Ghost not many days hence." It is said in 1 Corinthians 
xii. 13: "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one 
body, w T hether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be 
bond or free and have been all made to drink into one 
Spirit." And in Romans v. 5: "Because the love of God 
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is 
given unto us." In the quotation from Colossians ii. 11, 
12, we have circumcision and baptism used in their spir- 
itual meaning, and they both imply that inward change 



Lessons for Youth. 141 

which is wrought in the heart of the true believer in 
Christ by the Spirit of God. The thirteenth verse is a 
comment upon the eleventh and twelfth verses: "And 
you, being dead in your sins and the uncircu incision of 
your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having 
forgiven you all trespasses." This last word defines what 
circumcision and baptism meant in connection with the 
words quickened and raised with him. They most clearly 
teach that there is no typical circumcision or typical water 
baptism included in these expressions, as made in the 
eleventh and twelfth verses. They mean purely spiritual 
circumcision and spiritual baptism. 

(3) These expressions from the New Testament by John 
and Jesus Christ, and by the apostles, show conclusively 
that water baptism had a spiritual meaning, and that its 
spiritual meaning was identically the same thing as that of 
the spiritual meaning of typical circumcision. Galatians 
iii. 27-29 : " For as many of you as have been baptized into 
Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor 
Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male 
nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye 
be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs accord- 
ing to the promise." 

(4) Having seen that circumcision and the passover 
were inseparably connected in the ritual of the Old Testa- 
ment times, and that under the change of the law w T ater 
baptism and the new passover, or sacrament, is insepara- 
bly connected in the New Testament ; and that the chil- 
dren were the legitimate subjects of circumcision before 
the change of the law, and that Jesus Christ confirmed 
the rights of the children in the New 7 Testament, the con- 
clusion is inevitable that the children are as proper sub- 
jects of water baptism in the Church now as they w T ere of 
circumcision before the change of the law, which was 



142 Lessons for Youth. 

changed of necessity by Jesus Christ as the true High- 
priest, and as the one and only Lawgiver to the Church. 
And having seen that typical water baptism meant, spirit- 
ually, a change of heart, and that it is now the appointed 
rite, or way of designating the members of the visible 
Church, and the mode of imposing obligations to God and 
his Church upon its members, and that therefore it is in 
these things identically the same thing to the Church that 
circumcision was, except that it is imposed or performed 
in a different way. We allege that the change in the mode 
or manner of administering this sign and seal of the cove- 
nant does not exclude the children from their proper legal 
relation and rights, as expressed in the promises, they hav- 
ing been confirmed by Jesus Christ. 

(5) Let us notice some of the words of Jesus Christ, as 
the Lawgiver, touching the rights of the children in the 
Church under the change of the ritual, which he brought 
in as of necessity upon the change of the priesthood. 
Mark x. 14: "Suffer the little children to come unto me, 
and forbid them not ; for of such is the kingdom of God." 
Again, Matthew xviii. 1-6: "Who is the greatest in the 
kingdom of heaven ?" This question was asked by the dis- 
ciples. In answer it is said : " And Jesus called a little child 
unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily 
I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as lit- 
tle children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven* 
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little 
child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And 
whoso shall receive one such little child in my name re- 
ceiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones 
which believe in me, it were better for him that a mill- 
stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned 
in the depth of the sea." Luke xviii. 15-17: "And they 
brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them," 



Leseons for Youth. 143 

etc. Mark x. 16: "And he took them up in his arms, put 
his hands upon them, and blessed them." Note, on these 
expressions : 

1. Jesus speaks of the children as occupying that rela- 
tion to the kingdom of heaven that converted persons do. 
Therefore if converted persons are proper subjects of bap- 
tism, then so are the children also proper subjects of bap- 
tims, because Jesus would illustrate the true character and 
relation of a converted person by that of a little child. 

2. This illustration of the rights and relations of the 
children, as used by Jesus Christ, furnishes an explanation 
of what he meant by that expression made of the children, 
"Of such is the kingdom of heaven," and amounts to a 
positive confirmation of the rights and relations of the 
children in the Church under the change of the law. 
Therefore the children are as proper subjects of baptism 
now under the changes of the law as they were of cir- 
cumcision before the change of the law. 

3. Jesus taught the manner in which they are to be re- 
ceived by his example : "And he took them up in his arms, 
put his hands upon them, and blessed them." But w T hy 
did he not baptize them with water? We answer: 

(1) It is not recorded that Jesus ever baptized any one 
with water; for it is distinctly stated, "Jesus himself bap- 
tized not, but his disciples." (John iv. 2.) It was his 
prerogative to baptize with the Holy Spirit; and it was, 
doubtless, this spiritual blessing that he imparted and pro- 
nounced upon the children. 

(2) It is probable that those children had been formally 
recognized as members of the Church by circumcision at 
eight days old, as the Church law directed, until the law 
was changed ; and this probability is strengthened by the 
fact that there is no record of the baptism of any of the 
twelve apostles. Paul was not one of the twelve. He 



144 Lessons for Youth. 

had rejected Christ, and as such was a persecutor prior to 
his conversion; but after he was converted he received 
baptism. 

4. Jesus taught his disciples that it was an offense 
against him to forbid the children, and that they were to 
receive the children in his name and by his authority. 
We understand that this receiving them meant their formal 
reception and recognition as acceptable members of his 
Church. Their membership was to be recognized as fully 
and as positively as that of converted persons. 

5. Let us here note some remarkable expressions made 
of the children: Jeremiah is spoken of as "sanctified be- 
fore he was born, and ordained a prophet." (Jer. i. 5.) 
Prophecy asserted of John the Baptist that " he should be 
filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb." 
(Luke i. 15.) When Samuel was weaned his mother took 
him and "lent him to the Lord as long as he liveth." (1 
Sam. i. 28.) '*And the child Samuel grew on, and was in 
favor both with the Lord and also with men." (1 Sam. ii. 
26.) " Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child." 
(1 Sam. ii. 18.) Of Timothy it was said (2 Tim. iii. 15): 
" That from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, 
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through 
faith which is in Christ Jesus." It is asserted in Proverbs 
xxii. 6: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and 
when he is old he will not depart from it." 

SYNOPSIS. 

1. The children are redeemed by Christ. 

2. The children are embraced in all of the covenants. 

3. The children are susceptible of spiritual blessings. 

4. The children are members of Christ's Church. 

5. The children stand in the relation of converted per- 
sons to the Church. 



Lessons for Youth. 145 

6. The children'are as proper subjects of water baptism 
in the Church now, with its change of ritual, as they were 
of circumcision in the Church before the change of ritual. 



UESSON XXXVIII. 

Xhe Teachings and Practice of tlie Apostles Upon 
Infant Baptism. 

1. What did the apostles teach? 

We answer: They taught nothing that in any sense con- 
tradicted the covenants, or the law, or the prophecies, or 
the words of Jesus Christ, upon the subject of infant bap- 
tism. 

(1) The ministry and practice of the apostles was under 
the change of the law of the Church, which change was 
made by Jesus Christ. And as a matter of course their 
ministry and practice were in accordance with the changes 
that Christ brought in, or else they were not true disciples 
of Jesus Christ. Having noticed some of these changes 
and the necessity for them, we come to the basis of their 
ministry as such. 

(2) Their commission, as given by Jesus Christ (Matt, 
xxviii. 19, 20): "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all 
things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and, lo, I am 
with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." 
Mark the specifications in this apostolic commission : 
" Teach all nations, baptizing them." This prominent 
feature of their commission was in exact accordance with 
the two Adamic covenants. The two Adamic covenants, 
in their meanings and applications, embraced all nations 
of the Adamic family, or race, because Adam and Christ 
were both representative persons, or characters. Hence 



146 Lessons for Youth. 

this feature of the commission is in perfect accordance with 
the mission of Jesus Christ as the Mediator, who "tasted 
death for every man." (Heb. ii. 9.) Therefore, " when the 
fullness of the time was come," and the ritual of the Church 
had been perfected, and men were chosen and sent out to 
preach that Jesus Christ had come, and that the promises 
in that respect had been fulfilled, and that salvation was 
made possible to all, it was in accordance with all that had 
preceded as a preparation for that glorious consummation 
of this grand event — that the commission should embrace 
all nations. 

(3) The intermediate covenants all embraced the seed or 
posterity by positive specification. And the Abrahamic 
covenant, in addition to a specification embracing the chil- 
dren, specifies all the nations of the earth as embraced in 
the covenant. Therefore this apostolic commission is in 
exact accordance with the intermediate covenants. If the 
teachings of the apostles had been in contradiction of any 
of these, then that w T ould have been that far a contradiction 
of their commission, and consequently an ignoring of the 
truth of prophecy, and a contradiction of the ritual of the 
Church under which they had lived up to the change that 
Jesus Christ brought in upon the change of the priesthood. 

(4) As a sample of their teaching touching the children, 
we offer some of their first recorded expressions under their 
commission. Acts ii. 39 : " For the promise is unto you 
and to your children." And Acts iii. 25, 26 : " Ye are the 
children of the prophets, and of the covenants which God 
made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy 
seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto 
you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to 
bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniq- 
uities." These expressions, as given by the apostles as the 
introduction to their teaching and practice, embodying the 



Lessons for Youth. 147 

covenant with Abraham, with the promises, and with Jesus 
the Son of God as a fulfillment of the promises, furnish 
abundant data upon which to base a fair conclusion as to 
what they taught. Those points of covenant relation and 
obligations touching the children were prominent features 
in their teaching, judging even from what seems to be the 
opening texts of their preaching. 

Query: Did not revelation anticipate that some sects 
would arise who would reject the children, and to meet 
their objection record these first features of apostolic teach- 
ings upon this subject as a proof of the error of such a re- 
jection? For in the first apostolic teachings they appeal to 
the covenant and the prophecies for proof of the correct- 
ness of their teachings, and plead the promises made to their 
fathers. These outstanding prominent features of their 
teachings should be sufficient to satisfy any skeptic upon 
the subject as to what their practice was upon the subject of 
infant baptism. 

(5) As another sample of the teachings of the apostles, 
we offer Acts vii. It is Stephen's defense under charge of 
blasphemy against " Moses and against God." In his de- 
fense he speaks of the covenant, and of Israel as the Church 
in the wilderness, and of Christ under the names of Prophet 
and Angei, who gave the law to " Moses and our fathers to 
give unto us/' evidently appealing to these prominent truths 
of the Old Testament Scriptures as the basis of his faith 
and teachings. There are many references to these promi- 
nent features of Old Testament truths by the apostles, which 
clearly indicate the character of their teachings to have been 
in exact accordance with the Old Testament Scriptures un- 
der the changes of the law upon the coming of Jesus Christ, 
Therefore they taught nothing that even indicated that the 
children were excluded from their covenant rights; but the 
contrary, that their rights w r ere confirmed. 



148 Lessons for Youth. 

2. What did the apostles practice upon the subject of in- 
fant baptism ? 

(1) We answer: Their practice did not contradict their 
own teachings, nor the teachings of the covenants, nor the 
prophecies, nor the teachings of Jesus Christ, upon the sub- 
ject of the rights and privileges of the children; for they 
constantly insisted upon the truth and importance of the 
covenants, and upon the truth of prophecy. And they 
were true disciples, followers of Jesus Christ, having re- 
ceived their commission direct from him. 

(2) Some examples of apostolic baptisms. 

The first example is that which occurred upon the day of 
Pentecost (Acts ii.), upon which occasion there were about 
three thousand who were baptized — added to them. From 
what Peter said on that day of the children, we may fairly 
infer that some of those were children baptized, for he dis- 
tinctly stated to them that the promise was to them and to 
their children. And that inference is strengthened by the 
fact that it had been the practice up to that time to bring 
the children under covenant obligations and privileges in 
the Church by circumcision. 

The second example is that of Lydia and her household 
(Acts xvi. 14, 15) : " She was baptized, and her household." 

The third example is that of the jailer and alLhis (Acts 
xvi. 33) : "And he took them the same hour of the night, 
and washed their stripes ; and was baptized, he and all his, 
straightway." 

The fourth example is that of Stephanas (1 Cor. i. 16) : 
"And I baptized also the household of Stephanas; besides, 
I know not whether I baptized any other." 

Take these recorded examples of apostolic baptisms of 
households, or families, in connection with the statements 
made by the apostles about the promises, and the covenants, 
and the words of Jesus Christ about the children, and then 



Lessons for Youth. 149 

their commission to'" baptize all nations/' and the practice 
of the Church from Abraham to the coming of Christ, and 
it amounts to a demonstration that the practice of the apos- 
tles was in perfect accordance with all these upon the sub- 
ject of infant baptism, and not a contradiction of them in 
any sense whatever as to the subjects of baptism. In other 
words, it amounts to a demonstration that the apostles did 
baptize the children in connection with and when they bap- 
tized their parents. 

3. We offer another source of proof upon apostolic prac- 
tice of infant baptism — some facts of history. 

The first fact is that infant baptism exists as a practice in 
the Church of this day. 

The second fact is that the time, day, or year of its intro- 
duction as a practice in the Church has not, and we suppose 
cannot, be dated since the days of the apostles, or else it 
would have been done long since by the opposers of infant 
baptism. So we infer that it w 7 as practiced by the apostles. 

The third fact is the testimony of the Fathers, so called. 

1. In the first one thousand years of the history of the 
Church after the days of the apostles, there is not a voice 
or a pen that denied the validity of infant baptism that I 
have ever heard or read of, and I have read several books 
written by opposers of infant baptism. This fact is w 7 ell 
authenticated by historians. There was one who recom- 
mended its delay, but did not deny its validity ; so history 
asserts. I allude to Tertullian, who recommended its delay 
but acknowledged its validity. 

2. In proof of what w r e have stated, we quote Ruter's 
Church History. After having quoted several writers as to 
the existence and practice of infant baptism in the Church, 
Ruter says, on page 42 : " The antiquity of infant baptism, 
as proved by the foregoing quotations from the early fathers, 
furnishes evidence of its divine authority that cannot be 



150 Lessons for Youth. 

successfully controverted. If the infant children of believ- 
ers were not baptized in the days of the apostles, when did 
the practice commence? If introduced after the apostolic 
age, it must have been an innovation. But no mention is 
made by any writer of its introduction into the Church, nor 
does it appear that there was any controversy about it until 
it w r as feebly started by Peter Bruis, a Frenchman, in the 
twelfth century. Tertullian opposed it, but his opposition 
does not appear to have produced any controversy concern- 
ing its validity. Its validity he admitted ; but having, im- 
bibed the opinion that baptism was attended with the re- 
mission of all sins previously committed, he recommended 
the delay of it in many cases, but more especially in relation 
to infants. As no mention is made of the introduction of in- 
fant baptism into the Church at any time subsequent to the 
apostolic age, it evidently must have been in practice at that 
time." (See Dwight's Theology, and Watson's Institutes.) 
3. We offer the testimony of the early Fathers, as Ruter 
has it, pp. 41, 42: 

(1) "Justin Martyr, of the second century, when speak- 
ing of some who were members of the Church, says: 'A 
part of these were sixty or seventy years of age, who were 
made disciples of Christ from their infancy/ 

(2) " Iremeus, who flourished also in the second century, 
was a disciple of Poly carp, who w 7 as a disciple of St. John, 
and he makes this declaration, viz. : ' Christ came to save all 
persons who by him are born again unto God ; infants and 
little ones, and children and youth, and elder persons.' ' By 
being born again, he meant being baptized, as he has else- 
where shown.' 

(3) " Tertullian, who lived in the latter part of the second 
century, says : * The delay of baptism is more useful accord- 
ing to every person's condition and disposition, and even 
their age; but especially with regard to little children.' It 



Lessons for Youth. 151 

must be recollected that Tertullian is here opposing the 
baptism of infants because he had imbibed the erroneous 
opinion that the administration of this ordinance secured 
the remission of all sins previously committed. But this 
opposition to it shows that it was then in practice. 

(4) "Origen, who was born in the second century and 
flourished in the third, says, ' Infants are baptized for the 
remission of sins.' He says: 'The Church hath received 
the tradition from the apostles, that baptism ought to be 
administered to infants.' 

(5) "Cyprian, who was contemporary with Origen, in- 
forms us that sixty-six bishops being convened in a council 
at Carthage, having the question referred to them, 'whether 
infants might be baptized before they were eight days old,' 
decided unanimously 'that no infant is to be prohibited 
from the benefit of baptism, although just born.' 

(6) " Gregory Nazianzen, in the early part of the fourth 
century, says : ' The whole Church practices infant baptism. 
It was not instituted by councils, but was always in use.' 

(7) "Pelagius declares 'he had never heard even an 
impious heretic who asserted that infants are not to be bap- 
tized.' He also asks, ' Who can be so impious as to hinder 
the baptism of infants ? ' " 

We could give what several other writers state upon the 
antiquity of infant baptism, as stated by the fathers, but 
submit what Ruter has given as about the substance of 
what we could gather from others, and regard it as suffi- 
cient. We will only say that Watson, Summers, Hibbard, 
Fisher, and others, give similar extracts as to the testimony 
of the Fathers, as handed down to us. We claim that the 
statements given from Ruter's Church History, as the testi- 
mony of the fathers, is an additional proof that infant bap- 
tism was practiced by the apostles, for it is distinctly stated 
by them that they received it from the apostles. 



152 Lessons for Youth. 

LESSON XXXIX. 

My Mother's Mistake. 

My mother was the oldest daughter of Elijah and Mary 
Oliver. She became religious when quite young, and married 
Wm. B. Allen at about sixteen years of age. I was born 
on Monday morning, April 19, 1819. My father died sud- 
denly on the next Monday from fits or spasms brought on 
by a fall from a horse. Mother had me baptized in infancy. 
She lived a widow about two years, and married Thomas 
Bradley, the son of Baptist parents, but decidedly irrelig- 
ious at the time he married my mother. Besides being irre- 
ligious himself, he was bitterly opposed to the Methodist 
doctrines and usages. His opposition to my mother's relig- 
ious views and preferences was a source of no little trouble 
to her. Added to this he loved his dram, and often came 
home drunk. This was far from being pleasant. Later in 
life he joined the Baptist Church. His opposition to Meth- 
odism modified a little, but it was always a source of un- 
pleasantness to my mother. 

This was one of my mother's mistakes, so far as it related 
to a companion to help her to be a Christian. I being the 
only child left, an infant at father's death, she used often 
to speak of it, and talk to me and tell me that I must be a 
good boy and do right, and some time I would see my father, 
and only brother, who died at one month old. My mother's 
counsels and manifest deep anxiety for me, as the only liv- 
ing child by my father, made a deep impression upon my 
mind while I was quite young. As far back in childhood 
as I recollect any thing, I remember religious impressions on 
my mind as instilled by my mother's counsels and manifest 
concern for me. 

At about two years old a horse kicked me on the fore- 
head, the scar of which remains clearly visible. Mother 
said I was apparently dead for a long while. At about 



Lessons for Youth. 153 

eight years old I fell into the Appalache River in attempt- 
ing to cross it on a foot-log. I was taken out by Mr. Gillum 
Stoker, who saw me fall in. He was crossing the river at 
the time on horseback, with a lady riding behind him. He 
dismounted, threw off his coat and hat, ran and jumped 
into the river where it was over his head, and got hold of 
me under the water. He told me that I was fastened to a 
vine under the water, and it was difficult to get me loose. 
He brought me out, and thus saved my life. These two re- 
markable instances of narrowly escaping death while I was 
quite young somehow left the impression upon my mind 
that my life was spared for some special purpose, but for 
what purpose I had no idea. 

At about the age of twelve years I became deeply inter- 
ested about being religious. I was so deeply concerned that 
I often prayed in secret. I needed instruction, and sought 
it after a fashion. My mother knew that I was concerned, 
but failed to instruct me as I needed. I suppose she thought 
that I was only a child, and did not need any special atten- 
tion besides what she had given. But in this she was mis- 
taken. I needed instruction and encouragement at that 
period of my boy days. If my mother had taken proper 
care of me at that time I think I would have been con- 
verted then. This I set down as my mother's mistake. 
There are many other mothers who commit the same blun- 
der in their want of proper attention to their children. The 
children are susceptible of successful religious culture at a 
much earlier age than is generally supposed. I do not at- 
tribute any willful failure to my mother, but claim that she 
was mistaken as to what I needed at that age. I state it 
here as a matter of warning to other mothers in their deal- 
ings with their children. Mothers, there are no words like 
yours, no hands like yours, no prayers like yours, no affec- 
tion like yours, on the memory and lives of your children. 
11 



154 Lessons for Youth. 

What I am now, have been in the past, or may be in the 
future that is commendable, I attribute largely to the early 
impressions produced by my mother's instruction and care 
of me from infancy to twelve years of age. I do not mean 
to exclude the goodness and grace of God in any sense what- 
ever, for it was of his grace and goodness that I was blessed 
with a Christian mother. Nor do I say that my mother 
was faultless. She had her imperfections. I thought I 
could see some of her errors then, and think so yet ; but she 
had much to endure and to try her patience. Her life was 
largely one of trial of a severe cast. The lack of a relig- 
ious helpmeet is no small calamity, but to be cursed with an 
opposing companion in the shape of a husband or a wife is 
an affliction untold and indescribable, except by those who 
experience it. 



WESSON XL. 

"If It Had Not Been for My Mother, I Would Have 
Been an Infidel." 

Such was the language of a young man by the name of 
T., who was the son of a Methodist preacher. His father 
was a local preacher; he was a man of property — a toler- 
able preacher. He had given his son a collegiate educa- 
tion. His son was a graduate from O. C, so I was told. 
This young man and a company of others, at a camp-meet- 
ing, were discussing the subject of religion, and seemed to 
have been giving their opinions as to its truth and impor- 
tance. When young T. gave in his testimony upon the sub- 
ject of discourse, it was expressed in part in the language 
above. "If it had not been for my mother I would have 
been an infidel, for my father is a hypocrite." I knew his 
father, and had heard him preach. The conversation oc- 
curred in my camp at camp-meeting. I did not hear him 
speak it, but was told by those who said they did hear the 



Lessons for Youth. 155 

conversation. He ^yas apparently a shrewd young man, 
and had been well cared for, in the common acception of 
that term. Well dressed and educated, and judging from 
all that I could see or know, he probably spoke the truth 
of his father as well as of his mother, according to his esti- 
mate of their religion. Allowing his estimate of his father 
to have been correct, we conclude that there was a want of 
consistency in some way or in some of the actings and do- 
ings of that father that in his son's estimation amounted to 
a contradiction of his honesty as a Christian. What that 
inconsistency was perhaps will not be known outside of the 
family until the judgment day reveals it. It is to be feared 
that there are many other similar cases of inconsistency of 
conduct at home that are kept a profound secret by the wife 
and children for the sake of honor. 

Let us indulge in suppositions as to the inconsistencies of 
that preacher whose son accused him of hypocrisy. 

1. It may have been that of a rash, iron, arbitrary way 
of governing his children. Some men, and women, too, 
make a great mistake at this point. They seem to think 
that the child must- be controlled by the rod exclusively. 
They never take time nor condescend to talk affectionately 
to their children as a means of controlling them. They 
seem to think that the principle of slavish fear is to be the 
rule of obedience. It is not necessary for me to state here 
what I have seen and known of this sort of family rule. 
Nay, I will correct that expression, family rule — it is family 
abuse and misrule. There are not a few guilty of this very 
effectual way of destroying the child's confidence in their 
parents, and of blotting out the last remains of respect that 
is properly due to a parent. The Scriptures admonish par- 
ents in regard to their children: "And ye fathers, provoke 
not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurt- 
ure and admonition of the Lord." Again: "Train up a 



156 Lessons for Youth. 

child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will 
not depart from it." And to the children the Scriptures 
give a lesson, viz.: "Children, obey your parents in the 
Lord, for this is right ; honor thy father and mother, which 
is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well 
with thee; that thou may est live long upon the earth." 
The Scriptures do not say any thing that justifies the rash, 
arbitrary course adopted by some. You pet your horse or 
your dog to make them love you and obey you, and you suc- 
ceed ; whip and abuse them, and they will hate you, and only 
obey you from fear of the lash. If correction be indispensa- 
ble, let it be done not because you are angry, nor as if it was 
a pleasure to you to punish, but as an affectionate parent, 
else your child will curse you for your folly some day. 

This rash, tyrannical error may have been the fault of 
that preacher whose son called him a hypocrite. I knew a 
case of that sort once — a preacher also, who indulged in ex- 
tremes: when he got angry he whipped as if he had been 
beating a stubborn mule or a sullen ox, as if it was a grati- 
fication to his passion to whip unmercifully; and at other 
m times he would indulge to excess in allowing his children to 
do things for which he would whip them when angry. The 
consequence was that his children had no confidence in 
him — lost respect for him ; and as they grew to manhood 
and womanhood, they threw off all restraints. His rule, or 
rather misrule, was all lost on them. 

2. Suppose the wickedness of the preacher whose son 
called him a hypocrite to have been that of the love of the 
world, the love of its gold, its treasures, or its honors. We 
hear the Saviour say, " If any man love the world the love 
of the Father is not in him ; " and, " If any man love not 
the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathama maranatha." 
Then the curse of God is upon the man who loves the world 
more than he loves God. There is a Scripture rule of meas- 



Lessons for Youth. 157 

urement of character; or, if you please, there are Scripture 
balances by which men are to be weighed. One of the rules 
of measurement is, " By their fruits ye shall know them." 
This is a simple rule — easily understood. Little boys and 
girls soon learn to work out conclusion ctory to them- 

selves according to this simple, easily understood rule, as 
applicable to father and mother at home. Their decisions 
are generally made up with all the facts understood cor- 
rectly. 

The scale of weights, as given by which to try human ac- 
tions, is a simple affair, adapted, if you please, to the ca- 
pacity of a child. It is: "All things whatsoever ye would 
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this 
is the law and the prophets." It may be that that boy who 
called his father a hypocrite had discovered that his father 
was an idolater of gold, or land, or honors, or this world 
in some way, while he pretended to be a Christian and a 
preacher of the gospel. 

It is to be feared that there are not a few of just such 
cases this day, not in the ministry alone, but involving 
many a layman. Reader, are you one of this sort? Do 
you love the world more than God ? If the true answer be 
in the affirmative, then it is high time you were seeking a 
place of repentance, lest, like him who " sold his birthright 
for a mess of pottage," you should not find it. 

3. Suppose that the great sin of the preacher w T hose son 
called him a hypocrite was in a failure to observe the Script- 
ure rule of weights as applicable to his conduct with others, 
viz., that, he did not do as he would be done by. He may 
have detected dishonesty in his father's dealings with other 
men in various ways. Dishonesty may be practiced in busi- 
ness transactions. 

(1) In taking advantage of the necessities of others, and 
thus selling to them property at more than its value, or 



158 Lessons for Youth. 

in buying their property at less than its value. This is done 
in thousands of instances by men who have the money to 
trade on. In fact, it has become so common that some have 
actually concluded that there is no sin in that sort of deal- 
ing. But according to the Scripture rule of " doing as we 
would be done by," it is naked, barefaced, absolute dis- 
honesty. 

(2) Dishonesty may be practiced by a failing or refusing 
to do what was promised, either in payment of debts or in 
other things promised. It is a fact that there are many 
who seem to attach no importance to w T hat they promise to 
do or not to do. A man of this sort is not to be depended 
upon in any thing ; he is unworthy of confidence, and finally 
reaches the point where he is treated accordingly by those 
who know him. Water will seek its level, and a tree is 
known by its fruit ; so a man is known by the company he 
keeps. Dishonesty in the performance of what a parent 
promises a child is a ready way to destroy all the confidence 
of the child in the parent. The practice of threatening a 
child is of the same cast, and attended with similar results ; 
hence the direction, " Forbearing threatening." It may be 
that in some of these things the preacher's son had detected 
radical wrong in his father, and therefore denounced him a 
hypocrite. 

4. Dishonesty may be effectually and ruinously practiced 
in a way that to some it seems an innocent pastime : in the 
way of talking over the faults of others, and criticising their 
faults in the absence of those who are the subjects of dis- 
course. Any close observer may hear this done, without 
any great effort, in companies where you would not suspect 
it, and often apparently in an innocent w-ay. How ingen- 
iously it is sometimes introduced! It not unfrequently 
makes a prominent part in the conversation of fathers and 
mothers in the presence of their children. Those who prac- 



Lessons for Youth. 159 

tice this sort of dealing with others are closely allied to 
evil-speakers, tale-bearers, and backbiters. 

That excellent rule in the Discipline which forbids "evil- 
speaking, uncharitable or unprofitable conversation," is too 
often ignored. Also that one which forbids the "speaking 
evil of magistrates or of ministers." Upon this subject I 
will relate an incident. A preacher addressed me once 
to this effect : " Brother Allen, I fear that I have ruined 
the confidence of my children in the preachers by talking 
so much about their faults in the presence of my children." 
I need not say more about him than he acknowledged to 
have been guilty of in his address to me. That preacher is 
yet living, and if he should chance to read this he will likely 
remember the conversation. He had an irreligious son to 
whom I often talked, endeavoring to get him to be religious, 
but my oft-repeated efforts proved a failure on him. His 
son said at first, and to the last time that I ever talked to 
him upon that subject, "My pa don't care for me." This 
seemed to be the hinderance in his way. From what cause 
he had passed this decision upon his father I never knew ; 
but be it true or false of his father it produced a ruinous 
effect upon this young man. The last I heard of that 
preacher's boy he was irreligious. 

But to our subject again : This dishonesty, or some other 
fault, had been the cause of that preacher's boy calling his 
father a hypocrite. 

5. Supposition : The preacher whose son accused him of 
hypocrisy may have been one of those long-faced, morose, 
sedate, sour-looking, sanctimonious pieces of humanity, who 
was like the Indian is said to have described the tree as 
being — so straight that it leaned over. 

Most persons are liable to go into extremes, and some- 
times in attempting to avoid one extreme they fall into an- 
other. This is sometimes true of parents in the governing 



160 Lessons for Youth. 

of their children. Some people, whom we suppose to be 
good, honest Christians, entertain strange ideas of what real 
Christianity is. They imagine it to be a sort of straight- 
jacket something, made up of sighs and sadness after such 
a fashion that any sort of amusement or pleasant pastime of 
a cheerful cast is inconsistent with it, and hence they will 
not allow themselves to indulge even in a hearty laugh. 
When it happens that the parent is of this cast, it is quite 
likely that they will adopt a system of family rules accord- 
ing to their extreme views of what is correct, and yet be 
conscientious in what they do in this direction. A mis- 
take upon this subject is sometimes attended with bad re- 
sults. When restrictions are so stringent and unreasonable 
that they amount to actual affliction upon a child, when 
it can see no reason for it, nor any good to come of it, there 
is a probability that the child will become disgusted with 
the rule and also with the parent who attempts to enforce 
it. To illustrate I will relate an incident. J. R. was at 
camp-meeting with his family. His camp was arranged so 
that there was a pass-way between the rooms. He was sit- 
ting in the pass- way ; I was in one of the rooms with some 
of his children, who were at that time all irreligious except 
one daughter, and their irreligious state was a great afflic- 
tion to him at that time. I was trying to make myself and 
company agreeable to them as a means of doing them good. 
Something was said or done that caused a laugh. Brother 
R. heard us laughing, arose from his seat, came to the door 
and exclaimed, as if surprised : " Brother Allen, we are at 
camp-meeting ; how is it that you are all laughing this way 
at camp-meeting?" He meant it as a reproof. When he 
had finished his speech I replied : " Brother R., I regard it as 
a privilege to laugh occasionally, if circumstances justify 
it. I think it no wrong to laugh, even at camp-meeting. 
I have been trying to make your children think that relig- 



Lessons for Youth. 161 

ion does not make' us miserable creatures. I think the 
Christian ought to be a cheerful, happy man. Your chil- 
dren think you are a very unhappy man, and that if they 
were to become religious they would have to give up their 
happiness." He replied : " If they think I am an unhappy 
man they are mistaken." That he was a Christian I did 
not doubt, but that he made a mistake in his way of trying 
to get his children to be religious, as well as to respect him, 
I did not doubt, Good men are not always free from error. 
A child is somewhat like a flower — it needs some sunshine 
at home, to make home pleasant ; a child is a little like 
a bird — it loves to sing sometimes ; a child is a little like a 
lamb, or a kitten — it loves to play sometimes. It is hard 
to put old heads on children's shoulders. Instruct them 
diligently, lead them tenderly. In kindness, and yet in un- 
flinching firmness, let your child know that you mean what 
you say when you speak. You may whip them out of their 
senses ; you may indulge them to their ruin. These extremes 
are to be carefully avoided. Your own example of every-day 
life should be carefully guarded in word and deed. It seems 
to be natural with the child to think that its parents are wiser 
and better than others, until experience and observation con- 
vince it to the contrary. The parents, therefore, have every 
aid possible to make their child like themselves. Therefore 
when you 'find children who are quarrelsome, calling each 
other liars, fighting and scratching like mad cats — tale-tell- 
ers, mischief-makers, having no respect for themselves or 
their parents — you may safely conclude that they patterned 
largely from what was taught them at home either by pre- 
cept or example, and possibly by both. 

That boy that called his father a hypocrite may have 
been mistaken, or he may have been correct. Be that as it 
may, there was one consolation in this case, viz. : His moth- 
er's course saved the son from infidelity. He had confi- 



162 Lessons for Youth. 

dence in his mother's religion. Her consistency of life con- 
trolled his belief in the truth of the Christian religion. 
This was and is a victory worthy of the uncompromising 
efforts of any mother. 

Is it true that your child is likely to decide upon the 
truth or falsehood of religion by your life and conduct? 
Then you fill a station at once all-important, because it 
goes a long way to decide and fix the destiny of your child, 
as well as that of yourself, in the future. 



LESSON XLI. 

The Broken Vow. 

John Oliver was the only son of his parents. His 
father w T as an industrious, prosperous farmer, and was in 
easy circumstances financially. His son John was the idol 
of his heart, apparently at least. He spared neither care 
nor money to make him a man ; gave to him a good educa- 
tion for th$t day and the section where he lived ; furnished 
him any thing that he desired in the way of horses to ride, 
clothing to wear, or money to spend ; sent him into the best 
company, as he thought, for a gentleman. John was a fine 
specimen of a young man in his appearance, rather above 
medium height, fair skin, blue eyes, well built, and the pict- 
ure of good health. His father w T as not at that time a mem- 
ber of the Church. His mother and sisters were members 
of the M. E. Church, and the church-house was about a 
quarter of a mile from their dwelling, and the church-going 
people drank water out of the spring belonging to the family. 
The church-house had stood there for several years; I sup- 
pose it to have been erected before John was born. The 
old gentleman had once been a class-leader at an early day 
at that church. About the time that John was grown he 



Lessons for Youth. 163 

passed through a long, hard spell of sickness, and was very 
low, and thought that he would likely die. His dangerous 
state seemed to have been realized by his parents and sisters. 
They all thought it doubtful as to his recovery. In his low 
condition, at the verge of death, realizing his uncertainties of 
recovery, he promised the Lord, himself, and his friends 
that if he was spared to recover health again he would be 
religious and devote his services to the Lord. He slowly 
but finally recovered health again. His vow was upon 
him — came into mind often, doubtless, as he walked out 
into active social life again. But alas! with returning 
health and renewed association with his old comrades, he 
neglected to pay the vow that he had made at a time when 
he thought that he was near death, and apparently as 
a condition of recovery. As stated before, he lacked noth- 
ing in the way of money or means to go when and where 
he pleased, for he was the idol of the family, in one sense 
at least. Doubtless the longer he neglected his vow the 
more forgetful of it he was, and the longer he refused to 
pay it the harder his heart became. The pleasures of sin 
are always deceitful; they promise what they never give. 
"The wicked worketh a deceitful w T ork, but to him that 
soweth righteousness there is a sure reward." So " he that 
being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be 
destroyed, and that without remedy." 

About twelve months from the time that he was so near 
dying, and made the vow to the Lord that if spared to live 
he would serve him, John was taken sick again, occupied 
the same room, lay upon the same bed, and the same phy- 
sician was called to wait on him — Dr. H., of G., who on 
approaching addressed his patient familiarly, "John, sick 
again?" He answered, "Yes, Doctor, I am sick again; but 
you need not give me any medicine this time." " Why so, 
John?" "I shall never recover anymore, Doctor." "O 



164 Lessons for Youth. 

you were very low before, but you did get well ; and it may 
be so again." "No, Doctor; just one year ago, when I was 
low, I promised if I was spared to recover I would serve the 
Lord. I have not done what I promised; and now I am 
not only to die but I am lost — my soul is ruined, my doom is 
fixed, and it is no use for me to take medicine." The Doc- 
tor and his friends expostulated with him, but all to no 
avail. The Doctor prepared and gave medicine, but it 
seemed never to arrest the sickness. All possible aid was 
given, but he grew worse constantly, lived only a few days, 
and died as he had predicted of himself. 

The peculiar circumstances of his death was a felt family 
affliction. Its effects are hard to imagine, and only known 
by those who endured it. I have told it in substance often, 
and write it here as a warning to others, hoping that some 
may be profited by it. "I will pay thee my vows, which 
my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken when I 
was in trouble." (Ps. Ixvi. 13, 14.) Pay thy vows. 



LESSON XLII. 

Xne Bottle on a Hunting Tour, 

Oby Watson, Esquire Landrum, and Capt. Elijah Oli- 
ver were neighbors. At such times as suited them they 
went out hunting deer. Capt. Oliver w T as at that time a. 
member of the Church. Mr. Watson and Esquire Lan- 
drum were both irreligious and loved their drams, and took 
their bottle with them on their hunting tours. Some months 
passed away without any special developments as to the re- 
sult of the presence of the bottle, but as time gassed away, 
bringing around those hunting expeditions, reports came up 
to the effect that Capt. Oliver had been drinking. It had 
been suspected from the known practice of his hunting 
associates, and from the intimacy between them, but re- 



* Lessons for Youth. 165 

ports finally leaked out which led to inquiries respecting 
his intemperance. Previously he had been a sober, consist- 
ent member of the Church, and was regarded as a suitable 
person to serve as class-leader; but "evil communications 
had corrupted good manners." The Captain had permitted 
himself to take a social drink with his associates until it 
developed into a shape that demanded attention from his 
brethren in the class. He was visited, and perhaps cited to 
trial. He became offended at the course pursued in his 
case, and left the Church — severed his connection with it. 
Those hunting tours were repeated occasionally, and the 
bottle became a necessity to their enjoyment. It took but 
a short time, properly cultivated, for his contracted habit of 
taking a dram with his associates to develop into absolute 
and oft-repeated drunkenness. His house, where the preach- 
ers used to spend time pleasantly, and whom he once loved 
to see come, had lost its charms for the preachers, and he 
did not relish their presence as before. His family felt the 
gloom that then overskadowed them as none but those who 
pass through it could realize. He became a confirmed 
habitual drinker of intoxicating liquor ; he became unpleas- 
ant in his family, and disturbances of a serious cast came 
up occasionally. His business suffered as a natural and 
necessary result from his intemperance. Remorse of con- 
science was occasionally manifest in his sober, thoughtful 
hours. I have seen him sit and cry as a whipped child or 
a broken-hearted man, and express a hope that he would 
reform. At other times he would express the deepest de- 
spair, and assert that his day of grace was past — that there 
was no use for him to attempt then to change for the better. 
When drunk he would rave as a madman, and was doubt- 
less a maniac at times, The remembrance of these things 
has been a life-time affliction to me, because I respected him 
as my grandfather, and John Oliver, his son, was my uncle, 



166 Lessons for Youth. 

It may be an error for me thus to state facts of this charac- 
ter, but it cannot affect the dead. It may be some benefit 
to the living ; if it is, then the design of writing the facts is 
that far accomplished. Remember the fatal results of the 
bottle on the hunting; tour. 



LESSON XI*III. 

The Husband's Opposition. 

In the State of G., and county of G., about 1846, on one 
Saturday morning, Mr. C. T. rode up to my gate and hailed. 
On meeting me, he said : " They have sent for you to go to 
Mr. N. R.'s. Mrs. R. is low in sickness, likely to die, and 
requests that you come and see her." Mr. R. was a wicked 
man, a sportsman, gambler, and drunkard — one of the 
stoutest men physically of that country, and at that time 
about forty years of age. Some of their children were 
about grown. 

On arriving at the house of Mr. R. and approaching the 
lady, she addressed me, told me how' d'ye, and inquired if I 
was well. I answered in the affirmative and asked her, 
"How are you ma'm?" She answered, apparently un- 
thoughtedly, and said, " I am well. No," said she, " I am 
not well; I am about to die, and have sent for you, that 
you may talk with me and pray for me ; I am not ready to 
die. It is my husband's fault that I am not now a Chris- 
tian." I tried once to be religious, and often prayed in 
secret, and sometime , under pretense of visiting a neighbor, 
went to preaching. But this offended my husband, and 
from his opposition I gave it up ; and now if I die as I am 
I must go to hell, and it is my husband's fault." By the 
time Mrs. R. had reached that point in her history, her 
husband seemed as if he would go into spasms. His heart 



Lessons for Youth. 167 

seemed to have been, broken to pieces by the accusations of 
his wife, then on her death-bed. 

Mrs. R. rested a little after her talk about her hus- 
band's opposition and her early efforts to become a Chris- 
tian, and then turned her thoughts and words to her chil- 
dren : "0 my children, don't do as I have done; don't 
neglect religion until you come to a dying-bed. I am so 
distressed ; I am suffering so much I cannot think of pray- 
ing now. Do not come to a dying-bed to seek religion." 
She admonished all present, and warned them not to do as 
she had done. After she had well-nigh exhausted the little 
strength that she had, I talked to her the best I could, offer- 
ing the promises of the gospel, and insisting that the Lord 
was able and willing to forgive, and prayed for her the best 
I knew how. There were several neighbors present, nearly 
all of them irreligious, but all hearts seemed to melt under 
the appeals of the sick lady and the facts of the occasion. 

I returned home, about six miles, on Saturday evening, 
went and filled my appointment on Sunday, about four 
miles in another direction, returned home, and then went to 
see Mrs. R. on Sunday evening. On arriving at the gate 
I was met by a messenger with the request that Mrs. R. 
'must not be excited; she is very low, and the doctor says 
she must be quiet. With these restrictions I went to the 
bedside. She knew me and spoke to me. I asked, "Are 
you any better than you were when I left you?" She shook 
her head and answered, " No." " Have you felt no relief, 
ma'm?" " No, none." She seemed to be perfectly rational 
but very weak, and at the very door of death. I did not 
dare transcend the restrictions laid on me by the doctor and 
friends. I returned home that night. Mrs. R. ceased to 
breathe early on Monday morning, but never gave any as- 
surance of any change of mind whatever; as far as known 
she died in despair. From her deep distress of mind and her 



168 Lessons for Youth. 

apparently deep penitence, and the circumstances that she 
said had resulted in her unhappy state, I have been dis- 
posed to cherish a hope that through mercy she was saved ; 
but if so the Lord saw fit to keep it from her husband and 
children. Would that every man who opposes or refuses to 
help his wife to be religious, could see and hear the pitiful 
and yet thrilling tale of woe as those did who heard Mrs. 
R.'s death-bed words to those around her! It was a last 
farewell address of living, heart-rending sorrow, interwoven 
with deep-felt despair and irreparable regret. It was an- 
guish of spirit that exceeded any language to describe! If 
any woman should ever chance to read this who is cursed 
with a man in the shape of a husband who dares oppose 
your Christian life, let this example of Mrs. R.'s warn you 
not to do as she did ; you had better sacrifice all else rather 
than your soul's best interest. Be a Christian regardless of 
results. If any man should chance to read this who, like 
R., opposes or fails to aid his wife to be a Christian, let him 
repent of his great sin and amend his ways, lest his wife 
throw back upon him as her last dying curse : "I am going 
to hell, but it is my husband's fault." 



LESSON XlrlV. 

The Insane Wife. 

Miss Carter was a pious young lady, loved to go to 
church, and was a model character. She married a man 
by the name of Valentine Young. Mr. Young was irre- 
ligious, and opposed his wife's religion — opposed her attend- 
ing church. His opposition was known by their neighbors ; 
the class-leader knew of the opposition. Mrs. Young was 
a member of the class where I was appointed leader in 
1838, at Concord Church, in Jackson county, Ga., by J. C. 
Simmons. From her husband's opposition to her attending 



Lessons for Youth. 169 

church, and unpleasantness at home from his opposition to 
her religious course, her home became a place of sorrow in- 
stead of a place of happiness. He to whom she had vowed 
obedience and given her heart's affections had proved a 
traitor ; he who had vowed to love her as himself, and to 
keep her in sickness and in health, had broken those vows 
and rendered her life a burden. She struggled with her 
difficulties for a time, but she finally gave way ; her reason 
was dethroned, she became a maniac ; she lost the capacity 
of mind to fill her station as wife and mother. It is enough 
to say that she was insane, and from that insanity she never 
recovered. It was a place of marked affliction. The chil- 
dren looked like orphans long before their insane mother 
was relieved — removed by death. 

This is a warning example of the error so often com- 
mitted of marrying those who are irreligious, or those who 
essentially differ in religious doctrines. It is a matter of 
surprise that so many seem to attach no importance to the 
religious doctrines of those who are to be their life-time 
companions, and especially so when the examples of afflic- 
tion at home are so numerous growing out of a want of con- 
geniality of doctrinal views between man and wife upon re- 
ligious doctrines. In choosing a companion for life it is of 
the first importance that they agree in religious sentiments. 
Let the unbelievers in the truth of religion be companions 
to each other as a source of unanimity at home, and as an 
aid to each other to act out and live out a life of wickedness. 



LESSON XLV. 

M I will Break Him from Drinking." 

Miss Woods was a nice young lady, the daughter of a 
widowed mother and an heir of some property. Mr. T. M.» 
a young man of some property also, waited on Miss W. and 
12 



170 Lessons for Youth. 

sought her hand and heart as his wife. He was a man who 
loved his dram, and occasionally drank to intoxicatioli. 
Mrs. Woods heard and knew of his intemperate habits, and 
opposed the marriage of her daughter to him on that ac- 
count. But her daughter insisted on having him, and said 
to her mother, " I will break him from drinking," and she 
married him. She doubtless first tried her powers with 
kind w r ords and affectionate treatment, but to no good effect, 
Mr. T. M. would come home drunk occasionally. Finding 
that course a failure, she resorted to rash measures to break 
him of his old habit. She would hunt and break his bot- 
tles, but to no purpose ; he would buy it and conceal it away 
from his house; she would hunt it up, if possible, and de- 
stroy it. Thus they lived for some time, matters growing 
worse, until they resulted in his attempt to enforce his au- 
thority over her. Neither of them was disposed to yield. 
He abused her. She was heart-broken, and yet desperate 
in her efforts 4o control him. It is easy to determine what 
sort of a life it w T as to them and to their children, and what 
it was in the estimation of their neighbors. She never 
broke him from drinking, but he broke her happiness and 
hopes, and she broke him from happiness at home. When 
home has lost its natural attractions, when the happy wel- 
come of husband or w^ife gives place to sadness, grief, and 
hatred, mingled with despair, it becomes a sort of hell on 
earth, rather than an outline of heaven. 



LESSON XLVI. 

"I Will iriake Your I^ife a Hell Also." 

Such was the language of John M. to his wife. The nar- 
rative runs thus: Mr. M. attended a camp-meeting, pro- 
fessed religion, joined the Church, and went home deter- 



Lessons fok Youth. 171 

mined to live a religious life. His wife was irreligious, and 
opposed to his religious views. Mr. M., in accordance with 
his religious opinions, attempted to adopt what he regarded 
as a correct religious course as the husband and head of his 
family, doubtless deeply afflicted in mind to find his wife so 
bitterly opposed to what he thought to be right. His wife 
was not only opposed to his religion, but acted out her op- 
position in manifesting her profound contempt for him and 
his proposed religious course. Mr. M. concluded that he 
would act the man and adopt a religious life, notwithstand- 
ing the opposition. He attempted to hold family prayers, 
but this was too much for Mrs. M. to submit to. She re- 
fused to treat him with respect in this, and to show her con- 
tempt for him and his prayers she would manage to have a 
row with the children in some way, or tumble the chairs, 
and show that she intended to disturb and drive him from 
his proposed way of doing. Mr. M. endured it for a time, 
but finally, from her uncompromising opposition, he yielded, 
abandoned his prayers, and abandoned his pretensions to 
be a Christian — became desperate, and said to his opposing 
wife : " Madam, I have tried to be religious ; you have op- 
posed me ; I cannot be religious with your opposition ; I now 
give it up, but I will make your life a hell also." He did 
as he said ; he turned drunkard, and whipped his wife occa- 
sionally. They lived a life of war at home. They lived 
together until she died, but such a life ! It is in the power 
of husbands and wives to make home a place of delight. 
Many a man's life is shaped by the conduct of his wife, 
headstrong as men are supposed to be by some. Woman 
possesses a power peculiar to her sex either for the happi- 
ness or woe of those with whom she is associated. It is an 
act of no trivial import for persons solemnly to join hands 
and virtually swear that they will act the parts of husband 
and wife toward each other. 



172 Lessons for Youth. 

UESSON XXVII. 

"I Will **ot Go to tlie !*arty." 

Such was the language of a young lady, the daughter of 
John Clowers and a granddaughter of Daniel Clowers. 

As an introduction to what may follow in reference to 
the young lady whose language we have quoted in part in 
reference to the party, we give a little outline of family his- 
tory. Her grandfather, Daniel Clowers, was by nationality 
what we used to call a Dutchman. At an early day of 
Methodism in the State of Georgia Mrs. Clowers, his wife, 
became a member of the Church. The custom then was to 
close the doors during class-meeting. Mr. Clowers was not 
disposed to be religious, but went with his wife to preaching. 
After the sermon was ended class-meeting was announced 
as a part of the services of the occasion. Mr. Clowers, not 
disposed to stay in, left the house, but his wife remained in 
class-meeting. This offended Mr. Clowers, and the thought 
of their shutting the door was, in his estimation, an out- 
rage. He went out to where their horses were tied and sat 
down, got hold of a hickory shrub which had a grub on the 
end of it, and with this he beat the ground in anger until 
the class-meeting closed. His wife came out to the horses, 
they mounted and went home, but he was so sullen he would 
not talk to her. Night came, and they went to bed, but he 
was so angry he would not speak to his wife ; he became so 
restless that he could not sleep. Finally he gave place to 
serious, honest reflection upon his own course of conduct 
and its final probable results. His reflections resulted in a 
deep sense of personal guilt and consequent danger. He 
finally gained the victory over his passion so far as to 
speak to his wife ; acknowledged his sin and grief for it, 
asked her to pray for him, and was soon happily converted, 
joined the Church and was appointed class-leader, and re- 



Lessons for Youth. 173 

mainecl a leader until he became so feeble from age and in- 
firmity that he was released. It was said of him that he 
always talked to his brethren on his knees in class, and 
went from bench to bench in the church-house upon his 
knees. John W. Glenn preached the funeral-sermon of 
Daniel Glowers, in which he said that Brother Glowers de- 
served to have been called the Carvosso of Georgia. His 
son, John Clowers, was at the time of his daughter's death 
an exhorter or licensed preacher, I am not certain which. 
I saw Uncle Daniel Glowers, as we used to call him, a few 
times only ; heard him speak in love-feast twice, and heard 
him state the particulars of his conviction and conversion. 
He was regarded as one of the purest men by those who knew 
him best. His son, John Clowers, w T as a man in moral 
worth after the pattern set by his father. 

I have said this much as indicative of the religious cult- 
ure of the young lady by her parents and grandparents, 
and as furnishing a reason why she had a profound respect 
for her own religious character and hopes, and for the honor 
of her pious parents and ancestors. The narrative is about 
as follows : 

Miss Clowers went on a visit to Athens to see a married 
sister, and while there a young man called and presented a 
card inviting her to attend a party. After the young man 
left, her sister inquired of her, "Are you going to the party?" 
Her reply was : " I will not go to the party. If I knew I 
had but three days to live, and going to that party would 
prolong my life three years, I would not go." A few days 
after this occurrence she was taken very sick. Her father 
and mother were sent for, a distance of about fifty miles, 
but before they arrived the conclusion was made that she 
must die. She greatly desired to see her parents, yet ap- 
peared to be perfectly rational, and professed to be ready 
to die. After it was visible to those around that she was 



174 Lessons for Youth. 

actually passing through the pangs of death, she seemed 
for a time to be intensely gazing upward, and finally ex- 
claimed : " I see God. O how beautiful ! But I am not 
dying enough to see him fully." She was said to have lived 
but a short time after these words were uttered. The par- 
ents arrived in time to see her lifeless remains. Her tongue 
was still in death, her eyes w 7 ere closed, her form was cold, 
her soul had departed, but she had left an example worthy 
of imitation to other young ladies. She had proved to the 
last that she was a young lady of unflinching Christian, in- 
tegrity. There was no compromise of her religious integ- 
rity for the sake of frivolous pastime of an unchristian char- 
acter. She honored the Lord in honoring her religion. 
The Lord honored her in her dying moments with a visible 
and felt presence of his approbation. She honored her par- 
ents as having trained her up in the nurture and admoni- 
tion of the Lord ; she honored the religion of her grand- 
father and grandmother; she was no blot, no stain, or 
stigma upon the Church to w<hich she belonged on earth. 
She left living words of consolation to that father and 
mother and loved ones who would weep over her absence. 
Would that every young lady who claims to be religious had 
the moral firmness to refuse similar invitations to parties ! 

Suppose Miss Glowers had accepted the invitation and had 
gone to the party, which was probably made up of the sons 
and daughters of the rich, the refined, the intelligent and 
well-to-do families of the town, in a worldly sense. They 
probably had music of the best. The picked gents and la- 
dies of the place were there. They perhaps had a delight- 
ful repast of sweets of the best that Athens aristocrats 
could furnish, and of course the waiters were on hand with 
the large trays and baskets loaded w T ith syllabub and 
sw T eet-cakes ; or to suit all tastes, perhaps they had the w r ine 
without any milk in it. They doubtless had what they 



Lessons for Youth. 175 

called a delightful occasion. But alas! it was all irrelig- 
ious in its tendencies. One would scarcely dare claim to 
be religious in company with such surroundings. It was 
no suitable place for a religious song, it was no suitable 
place for prayer, it was no suitable place for any Christian. 
Its advocates admit the truth of these statements. It was 
not a suitable place for Miss Glowers, and had she gone she 
would have been regarded as renouncing her pretensions to 
be a Christian. This was the estimate she placed upon it. 
Xo wonder that she positively refused to go. But suppose 
she had gone to the party and had taken sick and died in a 
few days, suppose ye that she would have died the death of 
the righteous? What would those have said of it who knew 
her father and mother and grandparents, known as they 
were in that country? Many a wicked, seducing wretch of 
a young man would have laughed in his sleeve, as it is ex- 
pressed, at the idea of seeing the child of the exhorter or 
preacher, and the grandchild of the old model class-leader, 
at the party. It would have furnished the data upon which 
to cast many a slur and sarcastic cut at those devoted Chris- 
tian ancestors. There are those who seem to glory in mak- 
ing weapons of such occurrences with which to slur Chris- 
tianity, and that too after they have employed all their 
matured plans and traps by which to bring them about. 
That young man who delivered the card of invitation to 
Miss Glowers may have been one of that caste. The son of 
wealthy parents, well dressed, a graduate from the State 
University at Athens, a hater of religion, possibly — he may 
have chuckled to himself at the thought of having Miss 
Glowers as his companion at a party in Athens as an occur- 
rence of burning shame upon all concerned who claimed to 
be Christians. If so, what of him? What, knowingly to 
attempt to lead a young lady of pious parentage, and a 
Christian herself, into such disgrace for such fiendish pur- 
poses ! Could he be any thing better than a bundle of de- 



176 Lessons for Youth. 

ception? Could he have any moral honesty, any respect for 
a lady's virtue? Does he not deserve the scowl of all good 
men and women? Ought not every friend of religion and 
humanity to give him a kick down hill? And when he 
had reached the bottom of the hill of honor, ought not every 
young lady w T ho thinks any thing of herself or her sex to 
join in shouting a long, loud amen to the just forfeiture 
of his position in the moral world? Is not a horse- 
thief, who would go at night, or day either, and steal the 
last horse you had, entitled to more honorable respect than 
that man who will dare to invade the homes of the pious 
and seduce and deceptively mislead their children into dis- 
grace, and perhaps ruin? I unhesitatingly answer in the 
affirmative for myself, and for my children and grandchil- 
children, and succeeding generations. I had rather the 
horse-thief would steal my horse than that these party se- 
ducers should seduce my child into their association. I have 
a more profound respect for the whisky-sellers and whisky- 
drinkers, and the gamblers, as classes of demoralizers and 
consequent curses to good society, than I have for the party- 
lovers, and the party-defenders, and the party-goers, so far 
as they relate to my children and the success of the Chris- 
tian religion. Everybody knows what whisky-sellers and 
whisky-drinkers and gamblers are, and their tendencies, 
but these party people w T e regard as hydra-headed monsters. 
They are officered, they have their tactics ; they study their 
profession; they often have the money and means with 
which to work ; they often have influential commanders, as 
Col. A., Maj. B., Esq. C, Capt. D., Lawyer E., Judge F., or 
ex-Gov. G. ; and worse than these, occasionally a defender 
and advocate in a professed member of the Church ! Occa- 
sionally a fine-looking, well-dressed, well-educated young 
Miss makes a most excellent drummer for the party. Who 
could resist her artful and insinuating way of getting up a 
little innocent pastime? " I will not go to the party." 



Lessoxs for Youth. 177 

LESSON XI/VIII. 

A Prayer in the Wrong Mace. 

Rev. Hope Hull was a man of nerve, a good preacher, 
and was favored with a voice appropriate to his calling. 
Once on a tour where he was a stranger to the people he 
called to lodge for the night. The house had two rooms; 
the landlord pointed out a room to him as his place for 
rest and comfort. In a short time Mr. Hull saw a man 
come in with a violin under his arm; latej others came in, 
and by nightfall several had arrived. He suspected that 
a dance was intended, but nothing had been said to him in 
reference to it. After awhile the music commenced and 
the dancing was inaugurated. After they had enjoyed 
themselves for some time, they remembered the traveler 
and stranger in the other room, and being anxious that he 
should participate, a deputation was sent after him, with 
the request that he come in and dance with them. Mr. 
Hull declined going, giving as a reason that he was wearied 
from travel. This did not satisfy, and a second messenger 
was sent to invite the traveler to come in ; but he declined. 
The third time several of the ladies went, and proposed 
that any of them would be his partner in the dance; 
Mr. Hull begged to be excused, as he was weary from 
travel, etc.; but to no purpose — he must dance with them. 
Finally, they took hold of him and made as if they would 
drag him into the room, and did partially do so. All ar- 
ranged on the floor for the reel, Mr. Hull said that they 
must consent to one thing before he could participate : 
that it had been his practice never to do any thing until he 
had first prayed for the direction and blessing of the Lord 
upon what he was about to undertake, and that before he 
could participate they must all kneel down and have 
prayer. To this they consented. The Rev. Mr. Hull led 



178 Lessons foh Youth. 

the prayer in the midst of the dancing company. He was 
a man of more than ordinary intellectual capacity, and 
had a commanding voice, had the tact for the occasion, 
and roused to a sense of the difficulties and importance of 
the moment, he doubtless made an earnest effort to be vic- 
torious; and relying upon the Lord who had said, "Lo, I 
am with you alway," he pleaded for a manifestation of his 
presence there and then, and the more so because of the 
peculiar circumstances then existing. It is a reasonable 
supposition that the whole man, in the earnestness of his 
soul trusting in the Lord, w T as absorbed in earnest prayer 
for the salvation of that company of people. It was said 
that when he closed the prayer there w T as not a dry eye in 
the house; all were in tears, and some of them were per- 
fectly overpowered, and manifested a deep, heart-felt re- 
pentance. That was the end of that dance; they volun- 
tarily dispersed. What w 7 ere the final results of that 
prayer, in what some w r ould call the wrong place for a 
prayer, perhaps were never known. The probabilities are 
that some, at least, left that ball-room resolved to be Chris- 
tians, and to live so as to be ready to die. The circum- 
stances furnish data for suppositions : The preacher, if he 
had chosen to do so, could have evaded all this by inform- 
ing the first messenger that he was a minister of the gos- 
pel; that would have been enough. He could have given 
this to the second messenger, but he did not; he could have 
told the ladies this much if he would, and not a hand 
would have been laid upon him by them we suppose; but 
he kept this fact from them until he had them at a point 
where he could make it effectual at the proper time and in 
a way that they could not well object to. He assumed his 
proper position as a minister of the gospel. He had doubt- 
less read and studied that directory given by Jesus Christ 
to the apostles, as expressed in Matthew x. 16: "Behold, 



Lessons for Youth. 179 

I send } r ou forth as sheep in the midst of wolves : be ye 
therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves," He 
had probably read and thought somewhat of that expres- 
sion in Proverbs xi. 30: "He that winneth souls is wise." 
There are appropriate texts for the study of any preacher 
in our day as well as when first spoken. The preacher 
may have read that expression in Galatians vi. 1 : " Breth- 
ren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spirit- 
ual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; consider- 
ing thyself, lest thou also be tempted." Rev. H. Hull had 
doubtless given close, earnest thought to those important 
particulars of his ministerial duties and responsibilities. 
It were out of place for me to say in how many instances 
I may have thought that I could detect deficiencies in min- 
isters. I did not commence to criticise the ministry, but I 
may be permitted to offer suggestions to some of the young 
preachers who are not too wise to be instructed. I recom- 
mend to them a serious and prayerful study of the three 
texts quoted above. Nor would it be productive of any 
calamitous results if the whole membership of the Church 
were to take time to study the meaning and application of 
those texts as applicable to themselves in some important 
sense, as w T ell as to the preachers. 

The prayer was in the wrong place for the success of the 
party, for it broke up the dance. The prayer was in the 
wrong place, except by a man who was possessed of both 
wisdom and prudence, associated with an unspotted char- 
acter; for wicked men have no confidence in or use for a 
man who contradicts his profession by his conduct. 



180 Lessons for Youth. 

LESSON XI.IX. 

The Infidel's Uaiignter in tne I»arty. 

The facts were stated about as follows : 

A certain rich man had an only daughter, and she was 
the pride and idol of his heart's affections. He had spared 
neither money nor effort to make her all that money, and 
education, and association, and outfit could do to constitute 
her the center of perfection as an accomplished young lady 
in his estimation of what it took to make her such. About 
the time that he thought he had reached the point of his 
aims and ambition in endowments and accomplishments as 
a model young lady upon his daughter, she attended a 
camp-meeting. At the meeting she became convicted, 
w T as converted, joined the Church, and returned home. 
Her father, upon hearing what had happened at the camp- 
meeting (he being a disbeliever in the truth of Christian- 
ity), regarded his daughter as disgraced, and his hopes of 
her prospects all blighted, by her profession of religion 
and becoming a member of the Church, and that too in 
the face of all the money that he had spent and the pains 
he had taken to make her a model lady of the best society, 
as he thought; it was too much for him to bear. But what 
must be done was a problem difficult for him to solve with 
all the facts then existing. To resort to absolute coercion 
w T as not admissible, because his daughter was about grown, 
and an attempt at chastisement would be an unmitigated 
shame upon himself and his daughter also ; and aside from 
the shame, it were ten to one of the chances if an attempt 
at chastisement at that age and circumstances did not pro- 
duce the opposite results upon his child to that which he 
desired. This course, then, would not do. What then? 
To think of discarding her, my only child, the child of my 
affections and fondest hopes, the idol of my heart! Al- 



Lessons for Youth. 181 

though she has disgraced herself, and cast dishonor upon 
the family, I cannot give place to the idea of discarding 
her. He resolved upon a different method. Upon finding 
that his daughter seemed determined to hold on to her 
chosen religious course, after his counsels, persuasions, and 
various inducements, such as a father who loved his child, 
with the means at hand, could offer and bring to bear upon 
her, had failed to succeed in getting her to abandon her 
religious course, he resolved upon a plan which he thought 
would certainly succeed in accomplishing his purposes upon 
his daughter. He was not to be cheated out of his hopes 
and happiness for life by a little camp-meeting excitement, 
which could be satisfactorily accounted for upon philo- 
sophical principles by all sensible people, as he thought. 
He resolved to try the power of excitement according to 
his taste; he resolved upon a picked party for his purposes; 
he had the money and means at hand, and the will to 
execute his plans. The time most appropriate for his pur- 
pose was determined upon. This done, messengers or cards 
were dispatched. It was to be a select company, some per- 
haps from a distant part, some of his daughter's favorites 
of college associates, some who were in her class in taking 
lessons on the piano-forte, some of the young men for whom 
she had expressed a preference. In a word, those whom 
he thought could likely control the destiny of his daughter, 
for he regarded her as ruined and his own happiness 
eclipsed for life if he failed to bring about the desired 
change of purpose. The time set arrived. Imagine the 
manifest interest of that hour: the daughter's old and in- 
timate associates arriving, she musfc needs give them a re- 
spectable welcome ; they were specially invited to attend 
at her father's residence as select ones for the occasion. 
The invited guests having arrived, and the proper moment 
for the intended exercises to begin, it was designed and 



182 Lessons for Youth. 

arranged so that if his daughter participated by that 
participation she renounced her religion and took posi- 
tion again with the irreligious, as the father desired; but 
if she refused to participate, then her disgrace was con- 
firmed and her father's hopes permanently blighted. 

Assembled in the room prepared for this occasion of 
deep-felt and thrilling interest, various ones of the com- 
pany performed their pieces upon the piano to the applause 
of those present. Finally the name of this young lady 
was called as one of the performers upon the piano; all 
eyes turned in a moment to her to see what she would do. 
She arose from her seat, walked to the piano, took her seat, 
seemed to hesitate for a moment as if in reflection as to 
what piece she should use for the occasion ; raised her head 
and hands, passed her fingers across the keys as if to catch 
the proper key, then, with skill surpassed by none, played 
the tune upon the piano. At the proper time she sung the 
words in a voice that seemed to be almost unearthly, viz.: 

And am I only born to die ? 
And must I suddenly comply 

With nature's stern decree? 
What after death for me remains? 
Celestial joys or hellish pains, 

To all eternity ! 

How then ought I on earth to live 
While God prolongs the kind reprieve 

And props the house of clay? 
My sole concern, my single care, 
To watch, and tremble, and prepare 

Against the fatal day. 

No room for mirth or trifling here, 
For worldly hope or worldly fear, 

If life so soon is gone ; 
If now the judge is at the door, 
And all mankind mast stand before 

The inexorable throne! 



Lessons for Youth. 183 

No matter which my thoughts employ, 
A moment's misery or joy; 

But O when both shall end, 
"Where shall I find my destined place ? 
Shall I my everlasting days 

With fiends or angels spend? 

Nothing is worth a thought beneath 
But how I may escape the death 

That never, never dies ! 
How make mine own election sure, 
And when I fail on earth secure 

A mansion in the skies. 
Jesus vouchsafe a pitying ray ; 
Be thou my guide, be thou my way 

To glorious happiness ! 
Ah! write the pardon on my heart, 
And whensoe'er I hence depart, 

Let me depart in peace ! 

Imagine the probable result upon that company when, 
by the time she struck the last key on the piano and pro- 
nounced the last word of the song, the infidel father's 
heart and head were converted from infidelity to the truth 
of the daughter's religion ; and broken down in spirit and 
in the deepest penitence, he threw himself upon the floor 
at his daughter's feet and asked her to pray for him. He 
soon became religious, joined the Church, and lived a 
Christian himself. He felt by happy experience the ex- 
citement that he once thought could be accounted for upon 
philosophical principles. It was excitement sufficient to 
crush his infidel notions, and to produce a radical change 
in his faith, heart, and life. It is said that " a word fitly 
spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." May 
we not say that that song was fitly sung and played upon 
the piano? What its final effects were will only be known 
in the future. 



184 Lessons for Youth. 

LESSON I*. 

Individual Responsibility. 

"Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest 
be no longer steward." (Luke xvi. 2.) 

The word "steward" means one who manages the busi- 
ness of another, or one who is intrusted with the manage- 
ment of goods belonging to another. With this definition, 
we assume that we are all stewards, having charge of 
goods which have been intrusted to our management, and 
that for that management we are individually responsible 
to the giver or owner of the goods intrusted to us. It is 
appropriate for us to inquire — 

1. What is it, or what are the things with which w T e are 
intrusted that may be wasted or abused, and for which we 
are responsible? We answer that we, as creatures, are de- 
pendent upon our Creator for all temporal and all spirit- 
ual good, of whatever sort or shape these may be. We 
specify — - 

(1) Time. Time is said to be a particular part of dura- 
tion ; time is said to be a fragment of eternity, broken off at 
both ends, because it has a beginning and an end. Time 
with us may be said to be that period of our existence 
which passes between our natural birth and our death. 
Time with us is that upon which eternity depends, gradu- 
ated by the proper improvement or the improper use of 
it. If, then, eternity is to take its shapes or colorings from 
the use or abuse of time, it (time) is an item of no trivial 
import in the shape of divine endowment upon man in this 
life. It is said that we never know the real value of some 
blessings until we are deprived of them. This may be 
true of time. See how heavily it seems to hang upon the 
hands of some; see how many inventions are employed to 
pass it away. Let the facts, aided by imagination, fill up 



Lessons for Youth. 185 

the catalogue of accusations which might justly be re- 
corded against the living of this day for the waste of this 
portion of goods committed to man. Here is a field of 
thought inviting serious reflection. How many precious 
moments, hours, days, w T eeks, months, perhaps years, of 
your time have been spent, wasted, misapplied, and even 
turned into a curse upon yourselves and others? Let 
memory recall the past, let conscience speak untrammeled. 
Look at your abuse of the past in view of eternity and de- 
cide fairly — are you not liable to a charge of abuse of time, 
and likely to be deprived of your stewardship, upon this 
specification ? 

(2) Time was regarded so important in its proper bearings 
upon man that the Creator divided and set apart certain por- 
tions of it for labor and a portion for rest, and reserved the 
seventh as a Sabbath, w r hich was to be observed as a sacred 
day or period. There are those who not only waste the 
time loaned to them for secular and other purposes, but 
they take the seventh day also, and desecrate the Sabbath 
with their abuse of its solemn claims; and because of this 
misapplication of this sacred time, the curse of God rests 
upon them and upon what they claim as theirs. For the 
proper use of time men are to give an account to the donor 
of this important division of their Lord's goods. It is not 
yours to waste, misuse, or misapply. You had better be- 
gin to learn its value ere it is taken from you. 

2. The faculty of speech is a divine bestowment. The 
capacity to communicate our thoughts, desires, affections, 
and purposes, as well as hopes, is a capacity of no trivial 
importance. Here perhaps we may never learn its true 
value until it is taken from us. We imagine that we 
place such a high estimate upon it that we think we enter 
into sympathy with those whom we see unable to speak to 
others. I say "think" we enter into sympathy with the 
13 



186 Lessons for Youth. 

dumb. Perhaps we are mistaken. Can it be possible that 
we can in any proper sense comprehend the deep, untold, 
and untellable affliction that the total loss of speech would 
be to us who have enjoyed this great blessing from infancy? 
Nay, I think that we cannot properly enter into true sym- 
pathy with those who are deprived of this great blessing. 
Yet what is the use often made of this God-given capacity? 

(1) Sometimes in open, daring, inexcusable profanity 
and blasphemy against the giver of the capacity. Is it 
not surprising that the power of speech is not taken away 
from such abusers of this noble faculty? " Thou shalt not 
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain : for the Lord 
will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." 
(Ex. xx. 7.) " But now ye also put off all these : anger, 
wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communications out of 
your mouth." (Col. iii. 8.) 

(2) The power of speech is employed in tale-bearing in 
not a few instances, and sometimes by those of whom we 
might expect better things. " Thou shalt not go up and 
down as a tale-bearer among thy people." (Lev. xix. 16.) 
" The tale-bearer revealeth secrets ; but he that is of a 
faithful spirit concealeth the matter." (Prov. xi. 13.) 
" The words of a tale-bearer are as wounds, and they go 
down into the innermost parts of the belly." (Prov. xviii. 
8.) " He that goeth about as a tale-bearer revealeth se- 
crets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with 
his lips." (Prov. xx. 19.) " Where no wood is, there the fire 
goeth out: so where there is no tale-bearer the strife ceas- 
eth. As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire, so 
is a contentious man to kindle strife." (Prov. xxvi. 20, 
21.) The tale-bearer is a contemptible, peace-disturbing, 
mischief-making curse to any people, whoever they may 
be or wherever they live. One efficient agent of the 
devil of this sort can keep a community in constant dis- 



Lessons for Youth. 187 

turbance. If you have nothing good to say, you had bet- 
ter hold your tongue ; if you can do no good, you had best 
do no harm. Learn to attend to your own business and 
let others alone, and you will have plenty to do. I have 
lived to learn that " a word fitly spoken is like apples of 
gold in pictures of silver." 

3. The improper use of the tongue is often a source of 
disturbance in the family circle. Having spent about 
thirty years in the itinerant ministry, and during that 
time having seen much of the people to whom I preached 
as their pastor, I think I have had some opportunities to 
see and learn somewhat of family rules and practices 
which have come under my observation. And while this 
is a delicate subject upon which to say any thing in the 
w 7 ay of criticism, yet that does not exonerate it from at- 
tention. What we say need not offend the innocent; the 
guilty ought to see and abandon their wrong practices. I 
do not purpose to take up this subject in all of its varie- 
ties, but will say — 

(1) That I know of no other evil or practice that is pro- 
ductive of so much misery to the human family as that of 
the improper use of the tongue in the family circle. Hus- 
bands and wives are equally guilty in thousands of in- 
stances of making each other miserable by the improper 
use of words spoken to and of each other. Their children 
catch the dreadful disease and perpetuate it almost as if 
it were instinct. Indeed, I am not certain if parental 
practiced, cultivated sins are not inherited by the off- 
spring. We judge a tree by its fruit, and a fountain by the 
stream; we may judge the parents by the children. This 
law is as applicable in this respect as it is in any other. 
It is in the power of a husband or a wife to make their 
companion completely miserable by the improper use of 
words. The conjugal obligations rest equally upon both 



188 Lessons for Youth. 

husband and wife in their proper bearings. These mutual 
obligations are solemnly binding upon both, so that it is 
the duty of each to facilitate the happiness of the other. 
It used to be said that "a gentle hand leads the elephant 
by a hair." It is asserted that " a soft answer turneth 
away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger." (Prov. 
xv. 1.) " By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a 
soft tongue breaketh the bone." (Prov. xxv. 15.) It is an 
easy matter for a husband or a w 7 ife to bring about a com- 
plete destruction of their own happiness, and as they be- 
come miserable they will make all others more or less so ; 
and it is quite easy for them to lay their own wretchedness 
upon another. This is often done : Adam attempted to lay 
his sin on Eve, his wife ; Eve attempted to lay hers on the 
serpent; and Aaron said to Moses in reference to the golden 
idol wdiich he had carved out, " Then I cast it into the fire 
and there came out this calf." (Ex. xxxii. 24.) It is 
thus with many husbands and wives — they adopt a course 
which brings affliction and imparts affliction, and yet are 
wont to lay the wrong on another. It is but too true that 
there are some who seem to be incapable of self-control. 
Proverbs xxv. 28: "He that hath no rule over his own 
spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls." 
How different is he to the character mentioned in Proverbs 
xvi. 32: "He that is slow to anger is better than the 
mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a 
city." " The discretion of a man deferreth his anger ; and 
it is his glory to pass over a transgression." (Prov. xix. 11.) 
With these expressions as descriptive of what some hus- 
bands and wives are toward each other, and as the united 
appointed rulers of the family circle, the thoughtful would 
naturally conclude that those who have no rule over their 
own spirits ought never to be honored or trusted with the 
high and important positions of husbands or wives, or that 



Lessons for Youth. 189 

of parents. When passion rules, reason is in that propor- 
tion dethroned for the time; and "out of the abundance of 
the heart the mouth speaketh." (Matt. xii. 24.) What 
could be reasonably expected from husbands or wives who 
had no rule over their own spirits, and as a consequence 
no rule over their words, but misery, wretchedness of the ■ 
deepest dye, and ultimate disrespect, if not profound hatred 
toward each other. 

4. To illustrate : It is stated of a certain husband and 
wife that they were having disturbances of a serious cast 
so deeply afflictive that the wife concluded that something 
must be done to bring about a better state of affairs, and 
determined upon an experiment. She had heard of a cer- 
tain lady who had the reputation of putting tricks on peo- 
ple in some way, and the wife went to see the witch to see 
if she could not do something to bring about a better state 
of things between her and her husband, as things had got- 
ten to a very unhappy state. She narrated her tale of woe 
to the witch so called, and expressed great anxiety for some- 
thing to be done. The skillful physician readily deter- 
mined upon a prescription. AVhat the lecture, if any, we 
were not informed, except that a bottle of magical water was 
prepared, and was to be used at certain times in a certain 
way, and that was to be the agent of the remedy, viz. : When 
you discover that your husband is growing out of sorts, get- 
ting angry, go at once and take a mouthful of the water and 
keep it there until he gets quiet. The woman followed the 
prescription, and in a short time they were getting along 
very well; life had began to be a pleasure again. But 
after a time the supposed magical water was all out of the 
bottle, and in a short time trouble began to come again; 
so the distressed wife went to see her conjurer again, stated 
the facts, and how well they were doing until the medicine 
was all gone, and she desired more. The skillful prescriber 



190 Lessons for Youth. 

said to her patient: " Madam, it was nothing but common 
water; you could not talk with your mouth full of it." 
The secret is, Hold your tongue. 

5. Another remedy, as I heard it : B. A. married a girl 
that he familiarly called Sallie. He said that after they 
had been married awhile something transpired that brought 
up unpleasantness, and he and Sallie both got mad, and 
things were quite unpleasant for the time. He said he 
concluded that such a course as that must be remedied, 
and it was the more important because both had plenty of 
temper when aroused. So he waited until the storm had 
passed off and a suitable opportunity came up; he then 
proposed, "Sallie, I want to make a trade with you." 
"What is it?" she asked. He said: "It is this, In the 
the future if I get angry I want you to stay in a good 
humor, and if you get angry I will stay in a good humor; 
I see it will not do for both of us to get angry at once." 
He said after Sallie and himself adopted that rule they 
did better. 

6. Another prescription : A certain man said that soon 
after he was married he and his wife agreed that if either 
got angry and began to talk abusively, the other was to get 
a case-knife at once and commence whetting it on a rock so 
as to cut off the tip of the tongue of the offending one. 
He stated that some time after that contract he had given 
place to his passion and was talking rough ; after a little 
he noticed his wife with a case-knife drawing it in long 
swipes upon a rock, and he finally asked her, "What are 
you going to do with that knife?" " I am sharpening it to 
cut a bit off of your tongue." He said, " I had to laugh, 
and that was an end of the trouble." 

7. There is this day an amount of family trouble in 
this land that excels the ravages of whisky and all of its 
associates, and much of it is kept concealed for respecta- 



Lessons for Youth. 191 

bility's sake; and there ought to be more said and done to 
reach and remedy this curse than any other one evil that 
blights the homes of the people. Proverbs xxii. 3 : "A pru- 
dent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the 
simple pass on and are punished." Here is an open field 
inviting prudence as a helm to be placed over thoughts, 
words, and actions of husbands and wives, and as the 
united head and rulers of their legitimate subjects. How 
appropriately that exhortation may be applied as recorded 
in Proverbs iv. 23: "Keep thy heart with all diligence, 
for out of it are the issues of life." Keep the heart, be- 
cause " out of it are the issues of life." But once get your 
companion embittered against you, and there is a proba- 
bility that the wound will never heal over. Once get 
these seeds of discord imbedded in your companion's heart, 
and they are likely to spring up upon trivial occasions and 
produce a crop accordingly. Could I write or say some- 
thing that would result in the proper use of words in the 
families where discord prevails, I would feel that I had 
accomplished an untold good to my fellow-travelers to 
eternity; I would think that I had been instrumental in 
making many a home a little heaven to husband, wife, and 
all the children. 



192 



Lessons for Youth. 



8. Balance-sheet of duties and obligations demanded of 
husbands and wives : 

"And they twain shall be one flesh" {Matt. xix. 5.) 



Husbands 
" Should have but one wife," Gen. 

ii. 24; 1 Tim. iii. 2-12. 
" They have authority over their 

wives," Gen. iii. 16; 1 Cor. xi. 

3; Eph. v. 23. 

Duties to Their "Wives. 

1. "To respect them," 1 Pet. 
iii. 7. 

2. "To love them," Eph. v. 
25; Col. iii. 29. 

3. "To regard them as them- 
selves," Gen. ii. 23; Matt. xix. 5. 

4. "To be faithful to them," 
Prov. v. 19; Mai. ii. 14, 15. 

5. "To comfort them," 1 Sam. 
i. 8. 

6. "To dwell with them for 
life," Gen. ii. 24; Matt. xix. 3-9. 

7. "To consult with them," 
Gen. xxxi. 4—7. 

8. " Not to leave them, though 
unbelieving," 1 Cor. vii. 11-16. 

9. " Duties of not to interfere 
with their duties to Christ," Luke 
xiv. 26, with Matt, xix. 29. 



Wives 
"Should not be selected among 
the ungodly," Gen. xxiv. 3; 
xx vi. 34, 35; xxviii. 1. 

Duties to Their Husbands. 

1. " To love them," Titus iii. 4. 

2. "To reverence them," Eph. 
v. 23. 

3. "To be faithful to them," 
1 Cor. vii. 3, 5, 10. 

4. "To be subject to them." 
Gen. iii. 16; Eph. v. 22, 24; 1 
Pet. iii. 1. 

5. " To obev them," 1 Cor. xiv. 
34; Titus ii. 5. 

6. "To remain with them for 
life," Eom. vii. 2, 3. 

7. " Should be adorned not with 
ornaments," 1 Tim. ii. 9; 1 Pet. 
iii. 2. 

8. "But with modestv and so- 
briety," 1 Tim. ii. 9. 

9 "With a meek and quiet 
spirit," 1 Peter iii. 4, 5. 

10. "With good works," 1 Tim. 
ii. 10. 

11. "A good wife is from the 
Lord," Prov. xix. 4. 

12. " Is a token of the favor of 
God," Prov. xviii. 22. 

13. "Are a blessing to hus- 
bands," Prov. xii. 4; xxxi. 10-12. 

14. "Bring honor on their hus- 
bands," Prov. xxxi. 23. 

15. "They secure the confi- 
dence of their husbands," Prov. 
xxxi. 11. 

16. " They are praised by their 
husbands," Prov. xxxi. 28. 

17. "Their duty to unbeliev- 
ing husbands," 1 Cor. vii. 13, 14, 
16; 1 Pet. iii. 1-3. 

18. "Should seek religious in- 
struction from their husbands/' 
1 Cor. xiv. 35. 



Lessons for Youth. 193 

We offer this balance-sheet in this shape for the purpose 
of convenient reference to anyone who desires to know 
what the Scriptures teach upon the subjects, so that they 
may readily turn to the places and read for themselves. 

9. As husbands and wives you must give account of your 
individual responsibilities as such. Nor can you evade 
this responsibility; you may make your homes and lives a 
pleasure, or you may make them the opposite. Your rela- 
tions, obligations, and privileges are appointed: you are 
stewards of these, and as such you are accountable. 

10. The fourth division of thought upon " individual re- 
sponsibility" as a steward is your capacity and position in 
the social world. You are perhaps blessed with a master 
intellect, educated, cultivated, refined, equal to that of any 
others, and you have the vanity to believe that you have 
but few if any superiors. Then you have the elements of 
greatness in some respects above that of others who have 
not shared those high advantages. 

(1) We assert that in proportion as you have shared in 
those high and important endowments, in that proportion 
your individual responsibility is increased, and in that pro- 
portion you are expected and demanded to produce a life 
of results corresponding with your master genius and your 
polished accomplishments. So that in one sense you are 
not a whit superior to your more unfortunate fellows, as you 
regard them as being, for they are only responsible accord- 
ing to their more limited capacity and means of producing 
a life of results upon others. 

(2) Upon this hypothesis you have no good excuse for 
pride, because your master genius was a bestowment by 
another, and your educational refinement was the re- 
sult of the labor and care of others for you; so that you 
deserve no special credit upon that score — you only ac- 
cepted what was bestowed upon you. Hence when you are 



194 Lessons for Youth. 

placed upon your personal merits you deserve but little to 
your credit as it regards your natural genius or the refine- 
ments which have been placed upon it. 

(3) Possibly in addition to your genius and refinement 
you are the child of fortune in an heirship of plenty of 
money, or its equivalent. This possession of means by 
which to execute your plans and purposes adds another 
item of responsibility, and all of these endowments com- 
bined should constitute the possessor competent to the ac- 
complishment of results correspondingly great. 

(4) Let us inquire what you have done, or how you have 
managed your stewardship, for the day is coming in which 
you must give an account to the donor. 

Supposition : It may be that regarding yourself as an 
extraordinary man. You chose to make yourself conspic- 
uous by avowing some novel dogma upon which to display 
your masterly powers, and convince the world that you 
were a great man, had a head and thoughts of your own, 
and boldness of speech accordingly, and that you used 
these powers to convert people of less caliber to your chosen 
dogma, even though it should be in conflict with reason or 
revelation. As an example, a young man, B. G. N. C, 
was one partly of the caste we have named above. He was 
a young man of fair natural capacity, but not furnished 
with any extraordinary educational advantages. He was 
outspoken, but had no religious training, for his parents 
were irreligious. His father had some property, and was a 
prominent man in the community. Young C, as much for 
novelty as any thing else (so I thought), avowed disbelief 
in the existence of a Creator — alleged that he had no more 
soul than a horse, or other animal ; that there was no fut- 
ure state after death, and tried in his way to defend what 
he claimed to believe. He pretended to have no respect 
for any thing that claimed to be religious except for credi- 



Lessons for Youth. 195 

bility's sake in popular opinion. At the age of about 
thirty, I suppose, he was listening to a preacher, and un- 
der the preaching he became convicted. He said that the 
first impression made upon his mind was that he was a per- 
secutor of Jesus Christ. He stated that he began to feel 
bad, and thought he would get up and leave the congrega- 
tion, but the next thought was that if he attempted to leave 
his seat he would fall, and the next that he knew he was 
down on the ground and the Christians around him at- 
tempting to talk to him. He claimed that there and then, 
before he left that place, he made the surrender and expe- 
rienced forgiveness. He stated the above in substance to 
me himself in a letter. The mocker and scoffer at relig- 
ious things was thus changed in belief and heart, and con- 
sequently in after life. When I saw him in 1865, after an. 
absence from him of fourteen years, he was a class-leader 
at the place where he was converted. His conversion was 
doubtless the introduction to the conversion of his father 
and mother, and others. By his special request I preached 
the funeral of his father and his own oldest son, who were 
said to have died the death of the righteous. It is a dan- 
gerous experiment for any man to avow irreligion in any 
shape, whether it be for novelty or any other purpose. 
There is in some instances such obstinacy in some men, 
and with it such an aversion to the idea of change of prin- 
ciples, that it is difficult for them to gain their consent to 
acknowledge a known wrong. 

(5) Your genius and educational attainments and your 
money may have been devoted to wickedness, and to make 
yourself the more useful as such you have chosen a profes- 
sional life, and sought and attained popularity with some, 
at least, perhaps as an aspirant to office, and being a man 
of ability you have succeeded in filling important offices 
by the vote of the people. I ask you, What of your respon- 



196 Lessons for Youth. 

ibilities as having been trusted with this additional items 
of stewardship — your example, and perhaps your avowed 
principles, being at war with the moral interests of your 
people and the country that gives you position ? Your peo- 
ple admit the truth of the Christian religion ; their govern- 
ment and their hopes are based upon its truth. How can 
you, w T ith any degree of self-respect, ask a position as an 
officer when your life, and perhaps your principles, is a 
standing contradiction of the truth of the very basis of 
their government and their hopes as a nation of people? 
Being a man of genius, you must know that they that far 
ignore the truth of and the importance of all morality and 
religion. They, as the voters who elected you to office, 
ought to know, if they would think, that by their votes 
that elected you to office with your master genius and other 
high attainments, they had voted wickedness into high 
places; that they had voted for wickedness in the very 
heart of their government; that they had deliberately 
stabbed their own interest at its very center. 

11. The officers or rulers constitute the heart of all gov- 
ernments, whether civil, religious, or domestic. They rep- 
resent and control the interests or subjects under them as 
the heart literally causes the blood to circulate to all the 
extremities of the human body, and they are denominated 
and addressed as such by the Prophet Jeremiah (iv. 14) : 
u O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou 
mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge 
within thee?" Again, Proverbs xxix. 2: "When the 
righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when 
the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn." Again, 
Proverbs xiv. 34: " Righteousness exalteth a nation, but 
sin is a reproach to any people." 

In 1836, in J. C, in the State of Georgia, every member 
elected as a legislator was a dram-drinker, or a gambler, 



Lessons for Youth. 197 

or immoral. At that time a candidate who would not treat 
the voters and drink with them could not be or was not 
elected. The gentleman with whom I boarded that year 
was a merchant, and sold and drank w T hisky. I kept a 
blacksmith-shop, and worked at that business. He was 
elected to the Legislature that year. After he served his 
term and returned home, I asked him, "Mr. C, what do 
you all do at Milledgeville?" He replied: "Well, Billy, 
there is not more than one-half of them that know any 
thing about what is done, or that are there to vote on what 
is done; the others are at the drinking places and- lewd 
houses, and are no account in the transaction of business." 
Every friend to morality and religion has cause to rejoice 
that the estimation of morality and religion now occupies 
a higher stand-point in popular opinion than it did a few 
years past. There are now many w T ho openly assert that 
they will not vote unless they can get sober men to vote for. 
Would that every friend to his country w T ould adopt it as a 
rule to vote for no drunkard for any thing, and that they 
would go farther and assert that they would not vote for 
any skeptic, or infidel, or immoral man for any office. 

(1) Every man is accountable for the votes that he 
casts; they are stewards of this duty and privilege; they 
are responsible for the sort of men they select as officers. 
This is no trivial affair ; you are shaping, by your officers, 
the destiny of your country; you are shaping the future of 
morality and religion for the generations that may live after 
you. 

(2) Some man will say, perhaps, that this is no part of 
the duty of a minister, to meddle with the interests, act- 
ings, and doings of the officers of the civil government. 
Hold, my friend; if there is sin and wrong practiced by 
any man, though he be president, or king, or bailiff, he 
ought to be told of it, and it is the part of the minister to 



198 Lessons for Youth. 

specify and point out wickedness and correct the wrongs of 
the people in whatever shape that wrong may exist, or who- 
ever may be the transgressor. 

(3) It is to be feared that many a minister has refused 
to deal plainly with the sins of his people lest he should 
incur the displeasure of some. Is such a minister an hon- 
est man at heart? Is he not a traitor to his people and a 
traitor to his call to the ministry? But perhaps some have 
thought it was a meat-and-bread question with them. If 
that were true, then you had better be hungry or quit the 
itinerant ministry and work for your bread and be an hon- 
est minister. As a minister you must give account of your 
stewardship. You will be held to a strict account for the 
most important and difficult task that was ever laid upon 
man in any shape whatever. I know it requires moral 
nerve to do a man's whole duty as a minister. He has 
need to watch and pray. He should be wise as a serpent 
yet harmless as a dove. He has need of the divine presence 
and aid always. So far as responsibility is concerned there 
is no other position equal to it among men. " He that 
winneth souls is wise." What of him who fails to win 
souls by refusing to point out their sins? "Thou shalt in 
anywise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him." 
"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, 
and show my people their transgression, and the house of 
Jacob their sins." (Isa. lviii. 1.) 

12. As a steward of the Church, you are responsible for 
the proper performance of your duty and obligations. 
Yours is an appointed position; the appointment has been 
made by the authority of the Church. Your stewardship 
embraces the ministry and highest interests of the Church, 
because the success and perpetuity of the ministry as serv- 
ants of the people depends largely upon your fidelity as a 
steward. You, as a steward, fill a mission of responsibility 



Lessons for Youth. 199 

next to that of a minister who has been called of God to 
the ministry, because the preacher cannot go without means 
to go on. He cannot fill the place of a minister without a 
support. That support depends upon your efficiency as a 
steward ; if you cannot or will not do your duty as such, 
you ought, as an honest man and as a friend to the Church, 
to resign or refuse to be recognized as a steward. I claim 
to have been an itinerant preacher for about thirty-one 
years, and I here state that I have never had charge of a 
mission, circuit, or station that could not have supported 
me if there had been proper management upon the part of 
the stewards. 

(1) There is one error that ought to be remedied in some 
way: that error is in permitting so many of the members 
of the Church to do nothing in the way of meeting the 
claims that are justly laid upon them. And here lies one 
of the faults of the stewards : it is the steward's business 
to instruct his people upon this subject, and to assess, or 
get them to assess themselves, so that every member should 
bear their proportion of what is necessary to be raised to 
meet the demands. Most commonly a few members pay 
all that is paid and the balance go free. This is unjust. 
Every member should pay in proportion to their ability, 
and the steward should attend to this. I know, and every 
one else knows that knows any thing upon this subject, that 
the preacher's course has much to do with the willingness 
of his people to support him, But upon the hypothesis 
that the preacher does his duty, his claims are as just upon 
his people as their store-account, or as that of any other 
just debt; and it is therefore nothing short of a practical 
piece of dishonesty for his people to accept of his services 
as a minister and at the end send him away unsupported. 
Some one will say, perhaps, that this is strong language to 
come from a preacher. That may be true, but is it not the 



200 Lessons for Youth. 

truth ? Let it be remembered that I have not said that the 
stewards are dishonest, but I do say that the delinquent, 
hide-bound, close-fisted, self-serving members who could 
pay and will not do their part in this respect are practicing 
dishonesty toward the Church and its interests. If the 
reader is not guilty, you need not flinch under this accusa- 
tion; but if you are guilty, the language is intended for 
you. There are some who entertain very contracted views 
upon the support of the ministry w T ho have never gathered 
their meager notions from the teachings of the Scriptures. 
It is to be feared that there are some subjects that they 
prefer not to know, and this may be one of them. 

(2) The call to the ministry is not any more binding 
upon them than the demand is binding upon the Church 
to support her ministry. There are not a few in and out of 
the Church who are ready to bring the preacher to a reck- 
oning upon his delinquencies, and not unfrequently the 
most ready ones to raise the cry of complaint against him 
are those who never pay a dollar toward his support. If 
he fails to do his duty, then he ought to be held responsible 
for his failure, and if the members fail in their duties they 
ought also to be held responsible for their failure. The 
stewards are the officials to attend to both preacher and 
members upon these subjects. They can and ought to re- 
port their delinquent preacher to the proper authorities, 
and they can and ought to report to the Church Confer- 
ence the delinquent members, after they have made a fair 
effort to get them to do their duty. 

On the part of the ministry we will state that there are 
many of them who would at once cease to be itinerant if 
it were not for the conviction that it is their duty to occupy 
that relation to the Church. That there may be a Judas 
occasionally among them is possible. The Church organ- 
ization that will not do their part toward the support of 



Lessons for Youth. 201 

her ministry ought not to have any minister sent to them ; 
and in some instances, if it were not for the youth and the 
outsiders, they would be thrown out of the appointments. 

13. Are not the outsiders — so called — under some obliga- 
tion to do something in the support of the interests of the 
Church? Does their being irreligious and out of the 
Church release them from obligations of this sort? Does 
their being out of the Church give them a right also to 
employ all their means in the service of sin and the devil? 

(1) My irreligious friend, let us consider the question of 
your obligations to the Church. We will suppose that you 
admit the truth of Christianity; then you admit the im- 
portance of its ministry; and with these admissions you 
recognize that you are a participant to some extent of the 
influences of these agencies upon the world of men around 
you. You have seen and felt their forces in your own 
community; you may have seen their importance in some 
member of your family. Now, let us ask, What would you 
take to have the Bible, the ministry, and the Church, with 
all of their religious agencies, removed from you, your 
community, and your country, so as to have none of these? 
Remember, that with these your Sabbaths, and your ac- 
knowledged rules of justice and morality, and the very 
foundation upon which your civil government is based, 
would all go when you gave up these foundation essentials. 
Can you decide how much they are actually worth to you? 
Possibly you are well to do in the world financially: how 
much per cent, of actual value would this removal affect 
your property? How much would such a removal dam- 
age yourself and family in actual safety and happiness? 
Would not you and yours soon be actual savages? You 
would perhaps answer at once: If these moral and relig- 
ious forces were to be removed I would not stay here any 
longer than I could get away ; I would not live in a coun- 
14 



202 Lessons for Youth. 

try of that sort. Then, do you not owe something to their 
encouragement and support? Do you not owe as much as 
anyone else, in or out of the Church, of equal financial 
ability? I think you do as justly owe a part of your money 
and means to the cause of Christianity as any member of 
the Church does. You are a steward of the Lord's money, 
the Lord's land, and the Lord's stock, or of whatever else 
you claim in the shape of property ; and for this steward- 
ship you must give account some day. Upon your admis- 
sion of the truth of Christianity you cannot deny the just- 
ness of its claims, for they are thereby admitted to be the 
Lord's claims upon you as an individual, although you 
may be as wicked as the devil would have you be, for your- 
self as well as your property rightfully belongs to the Lord. 
For it is positively asserted : " Ye are not your own, for ye are 
bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in your body, and 
in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.) Again : 
"For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to 
himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; and 
whether we die, we die unto the Lord ; whether we live 
therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." (Rom. xiv. 7-8.) 
You have undertaken the impossible task of living to your- 
self, the task of ignoring the claims of God upon your 
body, spirit, and property, while you admit the justness of 
these claims in the admission of the truth of Christianity. 
(2) Let us look at this question from another stand-point. 
You are perhaps scrupulously honest in the payment of 
your just debts as a citizen and business man. You re- 
gard a failure of this sort, w T hen it could have been paid, 
a species of dishonesty. You have no confidence in any 
man's honesty who could pay and does not pay his debts ; 
you scarcely regard him as a good citizen, because he lacks 
honesty. In this respect your theology is in exact accord- 
ance with Christianity, for Christianity is honesty toward 



Lessons for Youth. 203 

God and man. Now, remember that we have only looked 
at the business side of this question of your honesty with 
men; there is a moral or religious side to it. What have 
you done in this direction? Is it honest for you to fail or 
refuse to pay of your means to the support and advance- 
ment of the very principles that you profess to hold so es- 
sential in a good citizen? From whence do these princi- 
ples come but from Christianity? 

(3) We assume, as a proposition, that as you admit the 
truth and importance of Christianity, and thereby the 
claims of the Church and ministry by which it is estab- 
lished and perpetuated in your community, you pass a 
decision against yourself as guilty of withholding your 
pro rata of means from its support while you are sharing 
the benefits of the means paid by your poor neighbors ; 
and besides this, your life and money means are at war 
against the best interests of yourself and family, and 
against the earnest efforts of your poor neighbors. If they 
could secure your financial aid it would not be quite so in- 
tolerable. The Church, the ministry, and the community 
feel sensibly the force of your position and misapplied abil- 
ity to do something commendable. Before we dismiss our 
subject, permit us to make some suggestions. 

The first suggestion is that you would scarcely feel the 
vacancy of a few dollars that you could employ to good 
purpose; and if you were to pay a part of that you justly 
owe to an extent to make you feel it sensibly, it would be 
the better for you as an individual. Your neighbors would 
think more of you for having done a part of your duty ; 
your children perhaps would think the more of you in 
after life and after you are dead; you would think more 
of yourself in your sober hours of reflection ; your con- 
science would justify your action in this direction. Let 
me persude you to make the experiment. If you cannot 



204 Lessons for Youth. 

get your consent to pay actual money, then may be you 
can give to the church-steward some produce that he can 
make available. Think a little, and if need be ask a few 
questions, and find out what is needed. Preachers and 
their families have to eat as well as other people, and it 
must come from some source; may be you could give some- 
thing in that way. I, as a preacher, have seen the time 
more than once when I would have been thankful for any- 
one, in or out of the Church, to have helped me to any 
thing that was eatable, great or small in quantity. Others 
have felt the same, and may possibly again. Then, the 
preacher and his family need clothes to wear as well as other 
people. If he gets them on a credit they must be paid for, 
or else the ministry is crippled. Perhaps you could do 
something in this shape. I have received from irreligious 
friends things that I highly appreciated — perhaps a pair of 
boots to keep my feet warm, or a hat that was decent, or a 
coat to take the place of the old one. It showed that they 
respected me in my mission — that they were friends to the 
ministry, yet out of the Church. Now, my friend, you 
could if you would, with your means, do much in the right 
direction, and you will regret some day that you had not 
done it. You are responsible for the abuse of the financial 
means that you call your own. 

We offer a lesson from the Scriptures which you can, 
by the references, run through the whole Bible and learn 
what it means. It is recorded in James v. 1-6: "Go to 
now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that 
shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and 
your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is 
cankered ; and the rust of them shall be a witness against 
you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have 
heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the 
hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, 



Lessons for Youth. 205 

which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth ; and the cries 
of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the 
Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, 
and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a 
day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the 
just ; and he doth not resist you." As a friend, I would 
warn you of your individual responsibility. 

The second suggestion is, God holds a valid claim upon 
a portion of the property means that you claim. Malachi 
iii. 8, 9: "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. 
But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and 
offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse ; for ye have robbed 
me, even this whole nation." Hear the exhortation and 
promise in verses 10, 11 : " Bring ye all the tithes into the 
store-house, that there may be meat in mine house, and 
prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will 
not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a 
blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 
And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall 
not destroy the fruits of your ground ; neither shall your 
vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the 
Lord of hosts." We remark that the tithe was the tenth 
part, and under the Old Testament law the tithes, or tenths, 
were set apart to Church interests, one of which was the 
support of the ministry, then designated by the priesthood. 
Nor has that law, as to quantity, ever been abrogated. 
True we live under a change of law since the change of 
the priesthood in several respects, but has this law been 
changed? Let us see. 1 Corinthians ix. 9: "Thou sh alt 
not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. 
Doth God take care for oxen?" Verse 14: "Even so hath 
the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should 
live of the gospel." " The laborer is worthy of his hire." 
God's tithes of the goods in your hands you have no right 



206 Lessons fob Youth. 

to withhold from his appointed purposes ; if you do, then 
you are justly liable to the charge of having used them 
dishonestly. They may apparently prosper in your hands 
for a season, but they will be a curse to you in the end. 
My opinion is that the tithes kept back prove a curse upon 
the children who inherit them. "Pay that thou owest," 
and let the proper owner dispose of his own goods as he 
may choose. " Give an account of thy stewardship, for 
thou mayest be no longer steward." (Luke xvi. 2.) 

The third suggestion is, that as gentlemen of honesty 
in business affairs, recognizing the truth of Christianity 
and thereby the importance of the ministry, you come up 
with your pro rata of the support of the interests of the 
Church for a year or two, and see how it would change the 
shape of affairs. If this were done, I predict some things 
as results, viz. : (1) The appointing authorities would send 
a better preacher to you if he could be secured. (2) You 
would have a decent church-house finished up and paid 
for. (3) The missions would be supported and multiplied. 
(4) You would feel, as a band of helpers in these things, 
that you had begun to aid in one of the most important 
interests that hands, heads, hearts, or means, were ever 
employed in as irreligious men. (5) I predict that once 
you saw and felt the effects of a little of what you could 
and ought to do, you w r ould try and be Christians your- 
selves. 

8. Christian stewardship. Every Christian is a steward 
of the grace of God. There may be many who claim to 
be Christians who never knew, by personal experience, the 
power of regenerating grace; whose religion consists in a 
bare profession, possibly accompanied with a form of relig- 
ious ceremonies. It may be those of whom our Lord spoke 
when he said : " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, 
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that 



Lessons for Youth. 207 

doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many 
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not proph- 
esied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? 
and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then 
will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from 
me, ye that work iniquity." (Matt. vii. 21-23.) These 
words should be regarded as a warning to all who profess 
to be Christians. That there is a possibility of self-delu- 
sion is clearly indicated by the words of our blessed Re- 
deemer. That the truly regenerated in heart, as steward 
of the graces implied and imparted with regeneration, may 
prove unfaithful, is clearly and repeatedly set forth by the 
Scriptures, and Christian experience confirms its truth. 
That expression is of this sort in 2 Peter iii. 18: "But 
grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus 
Christ." A growth in and consequent development of the 
Christian graces is an essentiality to their perpetuity. In 
other words, a proper use and improvement is a condition 
upon which these graces may be retained and enjoyed. 
Upon their neglect or abuse they may be taken away, or 
so forfeited as that the once possessor of them will be the 
worse for having once enjoyed them. We remark upon 
this subject — 

(1) That the maturity of the graces, imparted and im- 
planted in and by regeneration, is what is implied by Chris- 
tian perfection, so that the newborn child of God is placed 
in possession of what is called Christian perfection in its 
incipient stage or degree. That is, this perfection is com- 
menced; its essential elements are implanted in the new- 
born babe in Christ Jesus. 

(2) The newborn babe in Christ approximates the per- 
fection of a man in Christ Jesus in that identical sense 
that the newborn babe naturally approximates a mature 
man, in that the essential elements of the natural man ex- 



208 Lessons for Youth. 

ist in an embryo state in the elements of a naturally per- 
fect child. To make a man naturally, the elements of the 
child must be cultured and developed into that of maturity; 
yet the child as such is as perfect as its state of existence 
demands, and as it is possible to exist in the childhood 
state. This is true of the spiritually newborn babe in 
Christ. 

(3) The law of sustenance, culture, and growth in a 
child, to make a mature man naturally, is not less applica- 
ble to the spiritual child than to the natural. Therefore 
the error of some that spiritual life and maturity are inev- 
itable in those who are genuinely regenerated. Here lies 
the basis of the error of Antinomianism. 

(4) The work of regeneration in the newborn child of 
God is thorough, complete, perfect, accomplishing all that 
it is possible or necessary at the time to fit the newborn 
soul morally for heaven. If it were not, then it would 
only be a partial regeneration, and hence it would be only 
a partial new birth. Therefore the idea of some that after 
regeneration there are remains of sin w T hich unfit the soul 
for heaven, which must, they say, be reached and cleansed 
by an additional work of sanctification, is an error, and is 
an attack upon the truth of regeneration, by virtually as- 
serting that the regenerated are only partly new creatures 
in Christ Jesus. This error has led to much confusion 
upon this subject. Some of the reasons for this theory are 
built upon the fact that the newborn child of God is a sub- 
ject of temptation. They allege therefore that there are 
remains of sin in the regenerated soul. This is a false hy- 
pothesis, because the liability to temptation in the newborn 
Christian no more proves that sin remains in them than 
that the temptation of Adam proved him to be a sinner 
before he had sinned, or the temptation of Jesus by Satan 
proved him to be a sinner while he yet resisted and repelled 



Lessons for Youth. 209 

the tempter. Temptation is not sin, nor does temptation 
prove that he who is the subject of temptation has remain- 
ing sin in him. 

(5) The possibility of temptation does prove the possi- 
bility of yielding to the temptation, and by doing so the 
tempted may yield to its force and commit actual personal 
sin. Herein lies the moral agency of the regenerated as 
well as those who have not been regenerated. 

(6) The Antinomians assert "that God sees no sin in be- 
lievers, and they are not bound to confess sin, mourn for 
it, or pray that it may be forgiven." " That God is not 
angry with the elect, nor does he punish them for their 
sins." See Articles V., VI. of their doctrines. One of the 
five points of Calvinism is on this subject, viz., "5. On Per- 
severance." We remark upon this subject — 

1. The Antinomian or Primitive Baptists of this day 
hold in substance to the original Antinomian doctrines. 

2. The Missionary Baptists are also Antinomians as 
verily as the Primitives in the doctrines of Calvinism (so 
called), and they persistently preach the final uncondi- 
tional perseverance of the saints (so called) as positively 
as the Primitives. They do claim in their preaching to 
have rejected some of the features of the Primitive Bap- 
tists, but it is asserted by some of their ministers that their 
Articles of Faith are identically the same, and that the 
only difference between them and the Primitives is on the 
missionary question. 

3. The Old School Presbyterians are Antinomian, or 
Calvinistic, in their Confession of Faith (so called), and 
preach their doctrines as taught in their Confession of 
Faith. 

4. The Cumberland Presbyterians have rejected some of 
the features of Antinomianism, but they hold to and preach 
the unconditional salvation of the regenerated as verily as 
the Old School Presbyterians. 



210 Lessons for Youth. 

5. These doctrines of Antinomianism, as embraced and 
set forth in the five points of Calvinism, so called, are ar- 
ranged thus: (1) " on predestination ; " (2) " of the death 
of Christ;" (3) "of man's corruption ;" (4) "of grace and 
free will;" (5) "on perseverance." The language used to 
define the perseverance of the saints, so called, in the West- 
minster Confession is : " They whom God hath accepted in 
his beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, 
can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of 
grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and 
be eternally saved." The advocates for this doctrine al- 
lege that the doctrine of election secures the unconditional 
final salvation of all who are genuinely regenerated. We 
do not propose an expose of the absurdities of the five 
points of Calvinism here, but we offer some thoughts upon 
the fifth specification. 

(1) The Antinomian or Calvinistic doctrine on perse- 
verance is a flat contradiction of the Scripture teachings 
upon the responsibility of man. It is nothing short of ab- 
solute fatalism, and those who hold to it are as emphatic- 
ally Antinomian as it is possible for anyone to be, and that 
too of the most objectionable features of the bundle of 
Antinomian absurdities. Those who pretend to have re- 
jected some of the features of election and reprobation, 
and yet hold to unconditional perseverance as taught by 
Calvin, would be more consistent with themselves if they 
acknowledged the foundation upon which their false theory 
necessarily rested. The associated falsehoods of election, 
reprobation, and perseverance go together; they cannot be 
separated. Truths and falsehoods cannot be linked to- 
gether. These absurdities of unconditional election, rep- 
robation, and perseverance are links of the same chain ; 
they naturally and necessarily imply each other ; they can- 
not be divorced. Those who hold the one must accept the 
others. 



Lessons for Youth. 211 

(2) This Predestinarian doctrine of unconditional per- 
severance is in absolute contradiction of the responsibility 
of those who are favored with the Christian graces. To 
prove the correctness of this assertion, we offer the language 
used in defense of this irresponsibility by a Calvinist, viz. : 
"Justification necessarily includes not only a freedom from 
present condemnation, but likewise a freedom from all pos- 
sibility of future condemnation." This agrees precisely with 
the Antinomian expression "that God sees no sin in believ- 
ers, and they are not bound to confess sin, mourn for it, or 
pray that it may be forgiven." " That God is not angry 
with the elect, nor does he punish them for their sins." 
These expressions, from Calvinists themselves as definitions 
of their own doctrines, clearly assert that the person once a 
Christian never ceases to be a Christian ; that they are by 
the act and fact of regeneration placed in an irresponsible 
state and relation to God. They assert that the doctrine 
of election secures their certain or infallible salvation. 

(3) We assume and assert that the regenerated in heart 
are as responsible for the use or abuse of the graces im- 
parted to them as any other characters are responsible for 
the blessings bestowed upon them ; that the higher or greater 
blessings that are bestowed increase their capacity and 
their responsibility; and that there is less excuse for the sins 
of the regenerated than for those who have never experi- 
enced the power of regenerating grace. 

(4) This doctrine of unconditional perseverance is in ex- 
act accordance with what the serpent preached to Eve in 
the garden when he said to her, " Ye shall not surely die." 
(Gen. iii. 4.) This false doctrine was first preached by the 
devil. This identical falsehood lay at the foundation of 
the fall of the first pair of the Adamic race. This same 
false doctrine is taught by men this day, and claimed to be 
the teachings of the Scriptures by people claiming to be 
Christians. 



212 Lessons for Youth. 

(5) To show that I have not misrepresented the teachers 
of this doctrine, I refer to the language of a book called 
"The Presbyterian Preacher/' vol. v., p. 74— James H. 
Thornwell's sermon on Perseverance, in which he says : "Jus- 
tification necessarily includes not only a freedom from pres- 
ent condemnation, but likewise a freedom from all possibil- 
ity of future condemnation." He says of the doctrine of 
perseverance, page 69, " It is necessarily involved in the 
doctrine of election." Again, we refer to expressions made 
by Rev. T. T. Eaton in his sermon on Perseverance, " Bap- 
tist Doctrines/' page 517: "If the doctrine of election be 
true, then the final perseverance of the saints follows as a 
necessary corollary, so that every passage that can be cited 
to prove the former doctrine also goes to establish the lat- 
ter." On pp. 518, 519: "None who are chosen of God to 
salvation will perish. All Christians are thus chosen, there- 
fore no Christian can perish." On page 520 : " There is 
no such thing as a second spiritual birth." Let these ex- 
pressions, in their own words and from their own writers, 
define their own doctrines upon this subject. We offer some 
thoughts upon this doctrine of Christian responsibility in 
another lesson. 



LESSON IX 

Sin a Korfeiture of Christian Character. 

Is it possible for a Christian to sin and so apostatize as 
that he may finally be eternally lost? We offer in answer 
to the question — 

1. Is it possible for Christians, genuinely regenerated chil- 
dren of God, to commit sin? They may, or else regenera- 
tion is a destruction of their moral agency, as well as a 
work of regeneration. But may they commit sin and yet 
retain their Christian character and relation to God? We 
answer, No; for sin is a contradiction of their Christian 



Lessons for Youth. 213 

character, and a forfeiture of their friendly relations with 
God. In proof of this, Adam was a holy man originally, 
and he sinned — was condemned for his sin, and driven out of 
the garden. What Adam as a once holy man did in this 
respect others may now do under the provisions of mercy 
as proposed by the gospel, or else the Christian now T occu- 
pies a higher position than Adam did before he sinned and 
fell. 

2. If the Christian cannot sin, then regeneration makes 
an end of his probationary state, which would imply that 
he was no longer a subject of temptation, and that would 
imply that regeneration and adoption placed him in a 
state above that of Adam, Job, or Jesus, or the angels in 
heaven ; for Adam, Job, and Jesus were tempted, and it is 
asserted that some of " the angels kept not their first estate, 
but left their owm habitation," and them " he hath reserved 
in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of 
the great day." (Jude 6.) This hypothesis, then, is false, 
because the holy Christian is liable to temptation, and lia- 
ble to yield to the force of temptation so as to sin. 

3. But is it true that they are not accountable for their 
sins, as the advocates of perseverance assert? We answer, 
Adam was accountable, Noah and Lot were accountable, 
David and Solomon were accountable, the Israelites were 
accountable, including Moses and Aaron. That a righteous 
man may turn from his righteousness and commit sin is so 
positively set forth by the Scriptures and the history of man 
that no sane mind w T ould dare to doubt its truth. That 
God holds them as positively responsible for their sins as 
any others is equally as clearly set forth by the Scriptures 
and the history of the past. 

4. We assume as a proposition that by the same rule or 
course of conduct that one sin is committed a repetition of 
sins may follow to the end of that man's life, so that he 



214 Lessons for Youth. 

may die an unpardoned sinner, and thereby be lost eter- 
nally. " The soul that sinneth it shall die." (Ezek. xviii. 
4, 20.) " For the wages of sin is death." (Rom. vi. 23.) 

5. What is the sin against the Holy Ghost? and who 
may commit that sin ? Jesus, in speaking of it (Matt. xii. 31, 
32), says: "Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin 
and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blas- 
phemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto 
men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of 
man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh 
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither 
in this world, neither in the world to come." Note what is 
said in Mark iii. 28-30 : " Verily I say unto you, All sins shall 
be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies where- 
with soever they shall blaspheme ; but he that shall blas- 
pheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but 
is in danger of eternal damnation; because they said, He 
hath an unclean spirit." This last expression clearly indi- 
cates what that sin was as referred to by the words of Jesus 
Christ, as recorded by Matthew and Mark. The Pharisees 
said of Jesus, Matthew xii. 24 : " This fellow doth not cast 
out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of devils." They 
attributed that which was wrought by the Holy Ghost to 
Satanic power, and thereby blasphemed the Holy Ghost. 
The unpardonable sin (so called) to that people was neither 
less nor more than ascribing the miracles of Christ, as 
wrought by the power of God, to the spirit of the devil. 
It was a rejection of the only pardoning power. They said 
of Jesus, Mark iii. 22 : " He hath Beelzebub, and by the 
prince of the devils casteth out devils." This was their 
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which was unpardon- 
able because they rejected the only power that could par- 
don sin. Some of the rejecting Pharisees, then, did commit 
the unpardonable sin in their day. 



Lessons for Youth. 215 

6. By whom may the unpardonable sin be committed in 
this age of the Christian era? To show that it is possible 
to sin so as to go beyond the possibility of pardon, we offer 
Hebrews vi. 4-6 : " For it is impossible for those who were 
once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and 
were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted 
the good word of God, and the powers of the world to 
come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto re- 
pentance ; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God 
afresh, and put him to an open shame." Again, Hebrews 
x. 26-29 : " For if we sin willfully after that we have re- 
ceived the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more 
sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judg- 
ment, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adver- 
saries. He that despised Moses's law died without mercy, 
under two or three witnesses; of how T much sorer punish- 
ment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath 
trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the 
blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an un- 
holy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" 
In both these passages from Hebrews the description of 
character is so clear and emphatic that comment would 
seem superfluous. They describe the once Christian state 
and a subsequent apostate state, which amounts to an un- 
pardonable sin. They have no reference to those who may 
have lost the love and favor of God, but yet retain a belief 
in the truth of the Christian religion ; but they have refer- 
ence to the doctrinal apostate who rejects the truth of the 
Christian system, and "counted the blood of the covenant, 
wherewith they were [once] sanctified, an unholy thing, 
and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace." This is 
what is implied by "sin willfully;" and this is what is im- 
plied by that expression, " If they shall fall away." And 
here is the reason why it is unpardonable, because they re- 



216 Lessons for Youth. 

ject the only sacrifice for sin, and the only blood that can 
sanctify, and the only Spirit that can pardon and renew the 
moral nature. These expressions are proof positive of the 
possibility of a total and finally confirmed apostasy of those 
who were once in favor with God. 

7. There are those who are tempted to fear that they have 
committed the unpardonable sin. This temptation is very 
apt to be presented to the common backslider when he 
would give place to thoughts of repentance and reforma- 
tion. To those we would say that no one who holds on to 
the truth of the Christian system ever did or can commit 
this unpardonable sin so long as he holds on to the truth 
and reality of the pardoning power. Nor can any who 
never knew the power of regenerating grace commit this 
unpardonable sin ; but they may so reject offered mercy, 
and so quench and thereby grieve the Holy Spirit, that 
" God may send them strong delusions to believe a lie, that 
they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but 
had pleasure in unrighteousness.' ' (2 Thess. ii. 11, 12.) Or, 
they may reach a state where they, " having their conscience 
seared with a hot iron" (1 Tim. iv. 2), "who being past 
feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to 
work all uncleanness with greediness." (Eph. iv. 19.) 
There is a limit now as well as when God said, " My Spirit 
shall not always strive with man." (Gen. vi. 3.) 

8. What of the character spoken of in Matthew xii. 
43-45, and in Luke xi. 24-26, of whom Jesus said, "And 
the last state of that man is worse than the first? " His first 
state w T as that of a common unpardoned sinner ; his second 
state was that of being freed from the unclean spirit, when 
the unclean spirit had gone out of him; his third and last 
state was that he had an additional number of wicked spir- 
its, therefore it is said his last state is worse than the first. 
So it is, doubtless, even with the common backslider, and 



Lessons for Youth. 217 

much more so with the doctrinal apostate, because he has a 
spirit of unbelief in the pardoning power. His is there- 
fore a hopeless state so long as he rejects the pardoning 
power. 

9. What of the character spoken of in 2 Peter ii. 19-22: 
" For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought 
in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollu- 
tions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and 
overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the begin- 
ning. For it had been better for them not to have known 
the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, 
to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 
But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, 
The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and, The sow 
that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." Mark the 
words of Jesus in Matthew v. 13: " Ye are the salt of the 
earth; but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it 
be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast 
out, and to be trodden under foot of men." Let us note an 
example given in 1 Timothy i. 19, 20: " Holding faith, and 
a good conscience ; which some having put away, concern- 
ing faith have made shipwreck ; of whom is Hymeneus and 
Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they 
may learn not to blaspheme." These descriptions of char- 
acter and examples given, in which the persons are named 
and what they did, and the dealings mentioned, are unmis- 
takable in their teachings upon the subject of the possibil- 
ity of a total apostasy to anyone who is willing to know and 
understand the truth. To those who are so blinded or prej- 
udiced as to reject the truth, it is useless to offer proof or 
argument. 

10. We offer the revealed written law of divine adminis- 
tration upon this subject of individual responsibility for 

15 



218 Lessons for Youth. 

the management of the Christian graces and endowments. 
Ezekiel iii. 20 : " When a righteous man doth turn from his 
righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling- 
block before him, he shall die; because thou hast not given 
him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness 
which he hath done shall not be remembered ; but his blood 
will I require at thine hand." This rule of administration 
is repeated in Ezekiel xviii. 24, and xxxiii. 12, 13. The 
divine rule of administration is stated by the Prophet Jere- 
miah (xviii. 7-10) : "At what instant I shall speak concern- 
ing a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and 
to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation, against 
whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will re- 
pent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at 
what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and con- 
cerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it ; if it do evil 
in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent 
of the good, wherewith I said I w r ould benefit them." This 
identical rule of administration spoken of by Ezekiel and 
Jeremiah is asserted in the last book of the New Testament. 
Eevelation iii. 10 : " Because thou hast kept the word of 
my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temp- 
tation, which shall come upon all the world to try them 
that dwell upon the earth." These expressions by the 
prophets assert conditions as clearly and as emphatic- 
ally as language can express them ; and these conditions are 
expressed in Eevelation as clearly as they are by the proph- 
ets. We may assert that conditions are always clearly im- 
plied, even where they are not expressed. It was said to 
Solomon, 1 Chronicles xxviii. 9 : "If thou forsake him [God] 
he will cast thee off forever." It was said to King Asa, 2 
Chronicles xv. 2 : " The Lord is with you while ye be with 
him ; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you ; but if 
ye forsake him, he w T ill forsake you." These expressions do 



Lessons for Youth. 219 

not favor the idea of an unconditional perseverance. The 
Lord has not promised at any time to keep an unfaithful 
person, but he has said, " Be thou faithful unto death, and 
I will give thee a crown of life." (Rev. ii. 10.) 

11. Suppose that the doctrine of unconditional persever- 
ance, as asserted by Calvinists or Fatalists, were true ; then 
those who do not believe it, if they are regenerated, are as 
safe as those who do believe it, upon the Calvinistic hy- 
pothesis. But suppose the Calvinistic hypothesis be false, 
and that one may so apostatize as to be finally lost ; then it 
is a dangerous doctrine, and he who preaches it must give 
an account for preaching a false and dangerous doctrine, 
a doctrine that can result in no possible good, and if be- 
lieved and acted out must result in harm. I regard this 
feature of the Calvinistic theory as the most objectionable 
of any other ; and when a man asserts that he believes this 
feature of Calvinism, I set him down as an out and out Cal- 
vinist, because all of its essential features are embraced in 
this one doctrine. If I believed it to be true myself I 
would not preach it to others, because it would be preach- 
ing that they were not responsible for their actions or works 
in this life. I would rather say to them, " Watch and pray, 
that ye enter not into temptation." (Matt. xxvi. 41.) " Let 
him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." (1 
Cor. x. 12.) 

12. I would not and could not conscientiously be a mem- 
ber of any Church organization that held to this doctrine. 
I would not teach it to my children, nor would I sanction 
it by being a member of a Church that did teach it. The 
parent is as responsible for what he teaches to his chil- 
dren as a preacher is for the doctrine that he preaches. 
The admonition given upon this subject to Timothy should 
be a warning of danger that demands serious consideration. 
1 Timothy iv. 6 : " Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doc- 



220 Lessons fob Youth. 

trine ; continue in them ; for in doing this thou shalt both 
save thyself and them that hear thee." No man was ever 
called of God to preach a false doctrine, and he who dares 
to preach falsehood must give an account of his preaching, 
with its results upon those who hear and heed his preach- 
ing. "Watchman, what of the night? watchman, what of 
the night?" (Isa. xxi. 11.) 



LESSON LII. 

Parental Stewardship and Responsibility. 

That parents regard their children as a blessing and a 
source of joy and consolation is admitted by all; that the 
parents have much to do with the shaping of what their 
children will be is undeniable ; that parents are responsible 
for the management of their children no sane person will 
deny. It is asserted, " Train up a child in the way he 
should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." 
(Prov. xxii. 6.) 

1. They are a gift from God. Genesis xxxiii. 5: "The 
children which God hath graciously given thy servant." 
Psalm cxxvii. 3: "Lo, children are a heritage from the 
Lord." 

2. They are capable of glorifying God. Psalm viii. 2 : 
" Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou or- 
dained strength because of thine enemies." Psalm cxlviii. 
12, 13: "Both young men, and maidens; old men, and 
children; let them praise the name of the Lord." Mat- 
thew xxi. 16: "And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye 
never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou 
hast perfected praise?" 

3. They should be brought to Christ. Mark x. 13-16: 
"And they brought young children to him, that he should 



Lessons for Youth. 221 

touch them; and his disciples rebuked those that brought 
them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and 
said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, 
and forbid them not ; for of such is the kingdom of God. 
Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the 
kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. 
And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, 
and blessed them." 

4. The children should be brought early to the house of 
God. It is said of Samuel and his mother, 1 Samuel i. 24, 
28 : "And when she had weaned him, she took him up with 
her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bot- 
tle of w T ine, and brought him unto the house of the Lord 
in Shiloh ; and the child was young. . . . Therefore 
also I have lent him to the Lord ; as long as he liveth he 
shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshiped the Lord 
there." 

5. The children should be instructed in the ways of God. 
Deuteronomy xxxi. 12, 13: " Gather the people together, 
men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is 
within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may 
learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all 
the w T ords of this law ; and that their children, which have 
not know r n any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord 
your God, as long as ye live in the land w T hither ye go 
over Jordan to possess it." Proverbs xxii. 6: "Train up a 
child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will 
not depart from it." Ephesians vi. 4: "And, ye fathers, 
provoke not your children to wrath ; but bring them up in 
the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 

6. The children should be judiciously corrected. Prov- 
erbs xxii. 15 : " Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, 
but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." 
Proverbs xxix. 15, 17 : " The rod and reproof give wisdom, 



222 Lessons for Youth. 

but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. 
. . Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest ; yea, he 
shall give delight unto thy soul." Proverbs xiii. 24: " He 
that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him 
chasteneth him betimes/' Proverbs xix. 18: "Chasten thy 
son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his 
crying." 

7. "A child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." 
(Prov. xxix. 15.) How many are left to themselves? Par- 
ent, is it yours that are left to themselves? What care do 
you take of them? Are they not proper subjects of in- 
struction, correction, and control ? They need affectionate, 
faithful culture from you as a parent. Do you take time 
and try to instruct and encourage them to do right? or do 
you leave them to themselves? There are some who claim 
to be Christians who never attempt to instruct and encour- 
age their children to be good or to do good. The scolding, 
the rod, and abuse are about what they give to their chil- 
dren. No wonder that they grow up to manhood and 
womanhood with a profound disrespect for their parents 
and for the religion that they profess. For this abuse of 
your stewardship you must give an account, and a most 
terrible account it will be in various respects. What a 
catalogue of charges of abuse of your stewardship over 
your children could justly be brought against you by your 
children, and certified to by your own conscience, from 
which there can be no escape or appeal! Have you seri- 
ously considered this subject in its bearings upon your chil- 
dren and yourself? This subject does not find its way into 
the pulpit as often as it should, and- it is to be feared that 
it is too often touched lightly by the ministry. Delicate as 
some may regard it, there is no excuse for words of varnish 
by the minister while such sins are practiced by so many 
to the curse of all concerned. " Watchman, what of the 
night?* 





Lessons for Youth. 223 

LESSON un, 

Religion Kirst, Religion I^ast, Religion Forever. 

"Remember now thy Creator. in the days of thy youth, 
while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, 
when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." (Eccl. 
xii. 1.) " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his right- 
eousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." 
(Matt. vi. 33.) " Let me die the death of the righteous, 
and let my last end be like his!" (Num. xxiii. 10.) 

In the soft season of thy youth, 

In nature's smiling bloom, 
Ere age arrives, and trembling waits 

Its summons to the tomb — 
Kemember thy Creator now; 

For him thy powers employ ; 
Make him thy fear, thy love, thy hope, 

Thy confidence and joy. 

He shall defend and guide thy youth 

Through life's uncertain sea, 
Till thou art landed on the coast 

Of blest eternity. 
Then seek the Lord betimes, and choose 

The path of heavenly truth: 
This earth affords no lovelier sight 

Than a religious vouth. 



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